STEM Leader Excellence: A Modified Delphi Study of Critical Skills, Competencies, and Qualities

Abstract

With the push by government and business leaders for greater emphasis on STEM education at all grade levels, STEM leaders (i.e., educational leadership and teacher leaders) are challenged to pioneer integrative praxes that prepare students for success in a scientifically and technologically driven society. Additionally, these STEM leaders must transverse the barriers of developing transformative educational experiences that involve diverse stakeholders. This study utilized a modified Delphi technique to investigate what STEM leader skills, competencies, and qualities are identified as critical by STEM professionals within integrative STEM education. Findings are presented for the following seven themes: mission and culture, equity and social responsibility, infrastructure and programming, curriculum and instruction, professional growth, evaluation and assessment, and extended learning. These findings may inform the development of courses and programs that prepare or provide professional development for STEM leaders.

Preparing School and District Leaders for Success in Developing and Facilitating Integrative STEM in Higher Education

“…However, no qualities reached this threshold for leadership as it relates to Extended Learning. Table 5 identifies the highest rated qualities on average (see Rose et al (2019) for a more comprehensive list of findings).…”

“…While these domains were deemed critical leadership qualities, characteristics, and skills in integrative STEM education, the domains also complement and build upon national standards for educational leaders. Alignment between the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015) Professional Standards for Educational Leaders and the critical competencies in integrative STEM leadership exist with strong connections to equity and school improvement (see Table 6) (Rose et al, 2019). Higher education faculty should reflect upon the extent to which their current instruction and program offerings prepare their educational leadership students to lead integrative STEM education and meet the social, emotional, academic, and career and college readiness needs of P-12 students.…”

“…Upon completing the third round of the Delphi study, we compiled all of our data and resources to develop and implement an integrative STEM course for graduate-level educational leaders. See (Rose et al, 2019) for a comprehensive list of findings.…”

“…After coding all of the data, condensing the codes, and conducting a final reading of each transcript, we collapsed the codes into themes to convey rich, thick descriptions of the data (see Table 2). A modified three-round Delphi technique was used to identify and validate the qualities of an integrative STEM leader (Rose et al, 2019), and thus inform the content for a graduate-level course for educational leaders. The Delphi technique relies upon the judgments of distributed experts to identify and reach consensus on complex issues through the administration and analysis of consecutively more narrow questionnaires.…”

“…These domains include: (1) Mission and culture; (2) Curriculum and instruction; (3) Equity and social responsibility; (4) Infrastructure and programming; (5) Professional growth; (6) Extended learning; and (7) Evaluation and assessment. Critical characteristics of leaders in integrative STEM are outlined within each domain (Rose et al, 2019).…”