2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been actively piloting components of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) to better prepare our pre-service teachers to feel confident and excited to teach in urban, high need public school districts. With the awarding of an NSF Noyce Track 1 grant, we have intentionally created workshops that establish foundations for CRT while thoughtfully pairing pre-practicum experiences in our local community. Realizing the necessity to have more CRT theory, focused experiences, and reflections, as well as to develop and deepen CRT practices with feedback, we have mapped out different CRT competencies and approaches throughout the TPP curriculum. The goal is to have our teacher candidates develop an equity mindset to be inclusive, anti-racist, and effective educators such that all their students engage in STEM learning. We are curious as to whether the strategic integration of CRT in the curriculum, along with the experiential components in the community, might also encourage pre-service teachers to apply to be Noyce scholars. Learning objectives, experiences, and assignments will be shared, as well as initial results from the Noyce program. This project is funded by the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, Track 1.