A Partnership to Support Improved Public Understandings of Science Education

"Those who can't do, teach." This adage is common, perhaps because the general public does not fully understand what teachers do. Here, we describe our findings from a collaborative project, GIFT (Graduate Identity Formation through Teaching), in which STEM graduate students (GSs) taught science content to teacher candidates (TCs) and received a semester-long introduction to lesson planning and general instructional theories. GIFT was not originally intended to impact public perceptions of science teaching and science education nor was its purpose to cultivate future educators amongst the STEM GSs. Despite this, the data indicate that STEM GSs were impacted by this partnership and indeed thought about K-12 teaching more deeply after participating in GIFT. The results of this study indicate that purposeful interventions involving GSs (and perhaps undergraduate students) engaging in teaching may prove to be an impactful experience for those students and vital to the public support of science education.