The role of leadership in a STEM teachers professional development programme
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Abstract
The international academic community recommends the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in order to better prepare students to face the increasing challenges of our real world. However, literature diagnoses difficulties related to the implementation of STEM integrated tasks by the teachers in school, related to the need of having enough specialised knowledge to achieve this goal. Teachers are the key to any process of a pedagogical intervention. In this regard, there is the need to promote their professional development, which raises the following question: What strategies of a professional development programme (PDP) provide teachers with motivation and confidence to innovate their practices? This paper discusses the role of leadership as an important strategy to promote the efficacy of a STEM PDP. With a qualitative methodology and an interpretative approach, a primary school teacher case study is presented. The teacher was able to develop STEM integrated tasks in the context of a collaborative network involving the team´s project leader, the school leaders and the training centre leader.
Keywords: Collaboration, leadership, primary school, professional development, STEM.
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