Chapter 12: The Uteach Instructional Program, Elements, and Courses

The population of undergraduate STEM majors attending U.S. colleges and universities represents a significant, untapped pool from which to recruit and prepare STEM teachers. More than 355,000 students graduated with a STEM degree in 2016 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). And a 2017 national survey demonstrated that many of them would consider teaching if provided the right opportunity (Marder, Brown, & Plisch, 2017). The UTeach secondary STEM teacher preparation program provides just such an opportunity.

The UTeach instructional program offers an innovative approach to university-based STEM teacher preparation, and the program design is key to attracting undergraduate STEM majors to teaching. Over and over again, students have reported—through annual UTeach surveys—that the opportunity to expand their career options—the “one degree, two careers” aspect of the program—and still graduate within four years heavily influences their decision to enroll in UTeach programs and explore teaching as a career. In recent years, the cost of college has made graduating in four years even more important for even more students. And widespread acknowledgement of the need for a more diverse teaching population further necessitates efficient, but effective, teacher preparation program design so that pursuing secondary teaching becomes a viable option for all undergraduates, not just those who can afford more coursework. Removing barriers to participation in UTeach programs has always been fundamental to the program design, and can be largely credited with increasing the number of STEM teachers produced by universities that adopt the UTeach model. A recent study demonstrated that UTeach preparation also results in more effective STEM teachers (Backes, Goldhaber, Cade, Sullivan, & Dodson, 2018).