About UTeach Professional Development

The mission of UTeach Professional Development at the University of Texas at Austin is to improve STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) literacy for all students by providing professional learning experiences for educators that enhance teachers’ content knowledge, promote inquiry-based and project-based learning (PBL), develop leadership capacity in STEM fields, and create professional learning communities of STEM educators.

Our Approach

UTeach professional development programs reflect the belief that teachers are intellectuals who are eager to improve their practice. We believe teachers feel empowered when they are encouraged and guided to create products of specific use in their particular contexts and that learning experiences should be designed to draw upon their prior knowledge to construct new understanding through in-depth exploration of concepts and collaboration with others.

UTeach Professional Development programs draw upon current research to promote the use of:

• inquiry-based learning methods,
• content specific instructional practices that recognize the diverse resources learners bring to the learning experience,
• the meaningful integration of technology, and
• a variety of authentic assessment methods to inform instructional decisions and adjustments.