PTaP Study, AMTE GFO Task Force in Orlando, New on the GFO Website, Stay Connected, and more!
Six things you need to know, February 2024
PTaP Study
One of GFO’s most popular resources is a series of presentations for both students and faculty designed to share the facts about the teaching profession - many of you may be familiar with the “Busting Myths” student-facing presentation. To assess the effectiveness of these presentations at changing perceptions about teaching and a student’s desire to become a teacher, we’ve conducted a study in a required first-year course over three years at Colorado School of Mines using thePTaP (Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession) Survey developed by GFO.
The image above shows the Sankey diagram for the 2022 study group. For those students who hear the Busting Myths presentation, we see that about one third of the students answer the statement “I want to become a grade 7-12 science or math teacher” more positively.
Presenting to a large sample of the whole STEM student body changes the perceptions about teaching across a broad and diverse population and educates the student body in general about your program. All you need to do is partner with one of your friends on campus who is willing to offer a few points of extra credit, and students will come.
The study itself is rather straightforward to set up and conduct - once a course has agreed to give their students extra credit in exchange for their participation, we simply choose dates for presentations (typically all within the same week, in the evening after classes) and send the coordinating professor an RSVP form. Sometimes, when the budget permits, we will offer pizza as well (although this is not necessary). The presentations are the stock Busting Myths presentation with the addition of the PTaP before and after. We only added the PTaP for the purposes of the study. We have no reason to believe it improves recruitment outcomes.
To explore the results of this study further, click here!
New on the GFO Website
Already know what you need on the GFO site and want to quickly navigate to it? The powerful new GFO Sitemap will help you find exactly what you need with just a click.
AMTE GFO Task Force in Orlando
The AMTE GFO Task Force met at the AMTE Conference in Orlando, FL. Pictured L to R: W. Gary Martin, Sarah Roller Dyess, Lisa Amick, Jean Lee, Brian Lawler.
Gary Martin and Jean S. Lee presented their AMTE GFO Committee work, “GFO: Transforming the Narrative of the Teaching Profession to Address Teacher Shortage.” This was Gary’s last GFO presentation, as he transitions off and “exits” the AMTE GFO Task Force. See the exit sign right above this head? Participants explored data specific to their state.
Sarah Roller Dyess and Jean S. Lee presented on “Building a Teacher Pipeline: Collaborating on High School Recruitment Practices.” They started off by asking the audience members to think like high school students about negative messaging they might have heard about the teaching profession.We also included two mini-sessionsso participants could explore GFO a bit more.
Stay connected with GFO!
We want to stay connected and meet our community on the platform you use the most. Here are all the places you can connect with GFO. We can't wait to see you there!
LinkedIn for engaging conversations, news, and events.
Google Group/Listserv Community to post questions about GFO resources, how to use GFO resources, share your recruitment efforts using GFO resources, or share job postings or opportunities you think applicable to the community. Sign up for the GFO Community ListservHERE.
Voices from the Field
Short testimonies and feedback from the GFO Community
"It was my first time giving this presentation to students. It seemed to go over very well. My colleagues in attendance really liked the data-driven nature of the slides. Six students attended, which is a very good turnout for our institution, which has about 15-20 chemistry majors, 15-20 biology majors, and fewer than 10 math majors per year. The presentation was given during an activity period on our campus and was advertised as an information session for students interested in STEM teaching programs. The session was advertised to students in all of the introductory science and math classes and to all of the incoming students who indicated an interest in STEM majors."
Kathleen Kristian, Iona University, NY
"Starkville Oktibbeha County Middle and High School Math Teachers have weekly PLC meetings. During September 2023, I attended these meetings. I was given time to introduce myself and share a little about my work. During this time, I shared Get the Facts Out (GFO) as a resource for repairing the reputation of teaching, recruiting, and retaining math teachers. I have also had opportunities to share GFO with math methods students and math teachers across the state of Mississippi at a variety of events, including the annual meetings for the Mississippi Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (MCTM).
Liza Bondurant, Mississippi State University
We are excited to welcome 3 new GFO Champions!
A GFO Champion is anyone who shares facts about the teaching profession by using the materials and messages from the GFO project locally or nationally. A GFO Champion can be a current teacher, a faculty member, a teacher recruiter, or a careers advisor, or more!
It helps the project a great deal if you register as a Champion - and, you will appear on the community map, earn designations that can be included in your professional portfolio, and can make priority requests for local teacher salary and benefits data.
Stephanie Cavallaro, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Teacher Preparation/Alternative Licensure
Bradley Golub, Georgia Professional Standards Commission, Educator Recruiter
Brittany Tinkler, Perry Township, Elementary Teacher
Not a Champion yet? Learn more about becoming a GFO Champion.
Talk to us! We want to hear from you – your successes, challenges, questions and concerns! EmailGettheFactsOut@Mines.edu.
Get the Facts Out is an NSF funded partnership between the Colorado School of Mines and four national societies: American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. GFO is a unique project that is designed to reach STEM majors in a large fraction of all U.S. mathematics, chemistry, and physics departments and has potential to significantly address teacher shortages in these high-need STEM disciplines.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1821710 & 1821462. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Get the Facts Out, 1523 Illinois St., Golden, Colorado 80401
