Improving Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Report of a Workshop (2003) / Chapter Skim
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4 Promoting Effective Instruction at Departmental and Institutional Levels
4 Promoting Effective Instruction at Departmental and Institutional Levels
Pages 50-68
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From page 50... ...
It examines how the personality traits of individual faculty and the characteristics of organization, governance, and incentive structures of departments and institutions are related to teaching and instructional programs. It also considers qualities that serve as barriers to implementation of effective instruction.
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From page 51... ...
ACHIEVING INSTITUTIONAL REFORM To accomplish such recommendations as listed above, participants explored what individual faculty members could do to advance effective science instruction within the culture of their departments and institutions. They also examined what efforts would be needed by administrators and national organizations to promote effective STEM instruction.
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From page 52... ...
Characteristics of Faculty Who Become instructional Innovators Susan Millar, University of Wisconsin In her presentation Effecting Faculty Change by Starting with Effective Faculty, Millar outlined characteristics of faculty who are successful in introducing innovative programs of effective STEM instruction. (Refer also to her paper in Appendix A.)
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From page 53... ...
· They seek to provide course materials anti an environment that pushes the students to do the thinking anti to "learn to learn." · They believe that learning entails a constant moving back anti forth between "practice" and "beliefs." Effective instruction develops from trying things, resecting on their effect, trying new 53
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From page 54... ...
To effect greater change, they engage purposively with peer learning communities and, eventu54 ally, with networks of people who are engaged in similar efforts and pursuing similar strategies. Millar noted that education innovators often discover the literature of research on learning and teaching and the available networks "in their own time an(1 in their own way"; they often have to develop effective instructional strategies for themselves first.
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From page 55... ...
Patricia Morse, University of Washington; Robert Olin, University of Alabama; Elaine Seymour, University of Colorado; and Robert Zemsky, University of Pennsylvania. PROMOTING EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION all levels and build an atmosphere of trust between colleagues, teaching assistants, and students.
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From page 56... ...
Classroom innovators, therefore, look for ways to support their efforts anti buil(1 an atmosphere of trust and acceptance among teaching assistants, colleagues, and departments. Seymour reported that innovative educators also enlist researchers, cognitive scientists, anti other colleagues in education to provi(le support for anti supply evidence that their intervention is necessary anti effective.
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From page 57... ...
This was the issue considered in the presentations of Robert Zemsky, University of Pennsylvania, and a pane} of discussants. A Market Approach to Institutional Change Robert Zemsky, University of Pennsylvania According to Zemsky, the key to changing institutional practices in ways that reinforce effective teaching is to un(lerstan(1 what motivates institutions.
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From page 58... ...
Although Kerr's appeal to the historic university makes clear that change in the academy is slow, Zemsky accepted the challenge to explore in his presentation some of the options that university presidents, deans, and department chairs have at their disposal to encourage and support their faculty in instructional reform. In his paper (see Appendix A)
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From page 59... ...
She and her colleagues in the Quality in Undergraduate Education (QUE) biology project group at Georgia State University have made great strides in creating explicit learning outcomes for students in their biology program and have also encouraged the department to implement instructional changes designed to achieve those outcomes (see Chapter 21.
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From page 60... ...
For example, through the San Diego Science Alliance Top:// www.s~sa.org/) , San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego, have established partnerships with about forty local corporations that hire graduates at the associate in arts and baccalaureate levels in technical positions.
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From page 61... ...
Resources to support science education research anti reform efforts can inclu(le colleagues, consultants, students, PROMOTING EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION faculty networks, and organizations and institutes such as Chautauqua ditto:// www. chautauqua-inst.
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From page 62... ...
Wilson pointed out that when such pioneers in educational research in physics as Laws, McDermott, and Hestenes began asking questions about what students learned from traditional courses Maws, 1997; McDermott, Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group, 1996; Halloun and Hestenes, 1985) , nobody, neither faculty, administration, nor students, was pleased to discover that many students were failing to learn much of lasting quality.
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From page 63... ...
RPT administrators interviewed and surveyed faculty and students to gather reactions to the studio courses and administered authentic tests of conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities. To meet state and national interinstitutional standards, traditional midterm and end-of-course exams were used for student grading.
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From page 64... ...
Moreover, NSF has recently mandated that every proposal for scientific research must be reviewed according to two criteria: "intellectual merit" anti "broader impact." Examples of the latter category emphasize education: Does the research promote teaching, training, and learning? How will it improve science education?
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From page 65... ...
He conclu(le(1 by restating that researchers, whether funded by NSF, NIH, or private foundations, should consider the development of education projects in the same ways they (levelop science research projects: by reading the literature and consulting with colleagues to determine what is aIrea(ly known, anti then moving beyond that with a novel approach to the problem. Effective Faculty Professional Development Responding to Levitan's charge to integrate research anti education, Lillian Tong, University of Wisconsin, pose questions about what is meant by "teaching as research" anti what are the criteria by which education research 65
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From page 66... ...
Several workshop participants argued for placing science courses designated for preservice teachers within science departments rather than schools of education because effective teaching of undergraduate science, especially for these students, requires both specialized content knowledge and appropriate instructional strategies. If preservice teachers are taught effectively by science faculty, this could break the cycle noted in Chapter 2 by Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences, of incoming college students who have inadequate science backgrounds because they were educated by K-12 teachers who teach how they were taught in their own undergraduate science courses and who, therefore, never developed a true feelfor the nature of science.
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From page 67... ...
University administrators have a number of options at their disposal in promoting instructional change, such as acquiring funds dedicated to educational reform and publicly announcing that such resources are available; arranging for pre- and post-tenure mentoring in effective teaching (in collaboration with the school or college of education if appropriate) ; establishing a top-(lown and bottom-up department-w~de culture in support of effective instruction; selectively allocating fun(ls to key faculty who are willing to try new, learner-centere(1 mo(les of instruction; offering summer stipends anti sabbatical leaves for new course development, extra teaching assistants, and reduction of teaching loads during course improvement; anti establishing a policy that every course in a (lepartment must be (lesigne(1 to achieve specific, pre(le67
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From page 68... ...
NSF currently offers some programs to promote educational change, including the Math and Science Partnership program, the Learning anti Teaching Centers, the NSF Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars (I)
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