The Impact of Cl4STEM Online Community of Practice on Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge and Professional Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Connected Learning for STEM (CL4STEM) is an innovative teacher capacity-building project piloted in Nigeria. It aimed at science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers’ capacity building to foster higher-order thinking with inclusion and equity (HOTIE) in their classroom practices. It adopted a model of mobile-based communities of practice (CoP) as one of the strategies for CL4STEM teacher professional development. Hence, this study investigated the impact of the CL4STEM project online CoP on science and mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and professional practice for achieving HOTIE in their classrooms. The study adopted a survey research design involving documentary content analysis and a one-group pre-test-posttest design to collect qualitative and quantitative data to achieve the objectives of the research. The population of the study was all science; biology, chemistry, and physics teachers in senior secondary schools in selected states in Northern Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to select one newly qualified biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics teacher per subject area from twenty sample schools in the population, thus a target sample size of 80 science and mathematics teachers, 20 each per subject. Content analysis of the module reports and evaluation of lesson plans were used to obtain qualitative data on the science and mathematics teachers’ CoP practices and professional learning. The Pre-test and post-test on the teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were the instruments for quantitative data collection. The instruments were validated by the project consultant and science and mathematics education experts. Four research objectives and four corresponding research questions guided the study. Descriptive statistics, descriptive content analysis, and descriptive narrative were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that online CoP has remarkably impacted teachers’ subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge and professional development.