Reaching Students What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (2015) / Chapter Skim
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7 Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning
7 Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning
Pages 175-210
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A decade earlier in her career, she had taught geology at Carleton on a temporary appointment, and so she already knew about the institution's history of supporting research-based instruction and faculty development. Carleton also has its own center for teaching and learning aimed at improving instruction across the entire curriculum.
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The information is drawn from Chapter 7 of the 2012 NRC report on DBER, particularly the section titled "Putting Reform Efforts into Context"; from papers commissioned by the NRC and other research; and from interviews with practitioners who have implemented research based reforms in their departments or institutions or on a regional or national scale. If you are a science or an engineering instructor, department head, or institu tional leader, you'll find ideas in this chapter for creating a culture at your campus that nurtures effective teaching and learning.
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. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 177
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So if you can facilitate the department as a whole in thinking about undergrad science education and improving understanding of student learning, that can be really effective." Departments play a pivotal role because they "sit at the intersection of institutional and disciplinary influences" (Manduca, 2008, p.
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practices, and more than 10,000 students each year Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 179
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. The initiative has also helped to shift the culture • The provision of dedicated staff, including sci in the physics department at Colorado, says physics ence teaching fellows and undergraduate learn professor Noah Finkelstein.c "The culture has been ing assistants one of saying, ‘I'm not simply teaching, I'm engag • The creation of a one-credit "co-seminar" in ing in a professional and scholarly activity of educa which students work on tutorials that reinforce tion.'" The impact has been similar in many of the what they are learning in the main course other SEI departments, notes Wieman.d The efforts of the physics department at • An archive of course materialsf Colorado to introduce research-based strategies into what had been a traditionally taught, junior- The formal funding period for the SEI ended level course in electricity and magnetism illustrate in 2013, but Perkins expects several of its activi the synergy that can occur when committed instruc- ties to continue at Colorado through the Center tors receive support from their department and on STEM Learning, established in December 2012 institution.
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Departments have provided various incentives, such as giving faculty involved in course transfor mation release time; offering extra support from a teaching assistant, research assistant, or post-doc; and providing faculty with course materials developed by science teaching fellows. Participating faculty also mentioned two implicit rewards that have increased their commitment to the initiative: greater student engagement and opportunities to think about and discuss teaching as a schol arly activity with their colleagues.
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suggests several actions that department heads and deans can take to help create cultures that value and reward excellent teaching: • Regularly discuss the relationship of student learning to institutional missions and the relationship of teaching excellence to student learning • Initiate opportunities for collegial conversations about research-based teaching • Allow instructors time for innovation • Provide specific support for professional development on teaching and learning, coupled with incentives for faculty members to participate 182 Reaching Students
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and other innovative prac tices at the University of Delaware shows how change can flourish in a hospi table institutional climate. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 183
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the effectiveness of their teaching strategies, and con As newer faculty members have come on board ducted research on student learning in the sciences. with additional strategies for improving instruction, They met weekly for informal conversations about the university has become less "monomaniacal" teaching and learning and served as a support group about PBL, Allen explains.
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The university has since built additional rooms equipped with new technologies to facilitate group work. "The highest-tech ones have a huge computer monitor that sits on the wall for each group, and not Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 185
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. For example, if the members of a department have not set overall learning goals or are more focused on covering content than on making sure students learn core concepts, this may create concerns about how well a course redesigned around research-based approaches will mesh with later courses in a sequence.
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Provide fellowships for faculty to work on instructional reform At Michigan State, the Lilly Teaching Fellows program provides pre-tenure faculty, including STEM faculty, with a year-long fellowship to engage in scholarship on effec tive teaching practices. A large majority (85 percent or more)
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At the University of Georgia (UGA) , says biology professor Erin Dolan,4 "We have a really strong group of people who are very knowledgeable about the research base in biology education and can think about putting that research into practice in the classroom." As a result, she notes, most of the department's introductory courses use instructional strategies that actively engage students, and faculty are now working on transferring those strategies into upper-level courses.
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6 Interview, April 25, 2013. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 189
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Colorado uses the strategy of rotating faculty assignments to teach rede signed courses to expose more faculty to new research-based teaching strategies. In this way, says physics professor Noah Finkelstein,8 faculty who have less expe rience with research-based instruction "learn by enculturation and participation." Use innovative approaches to scheduling to facilitate classroom interaction Several of the courses taught by instructors highlighted in this book use block scheduling in which classes meet for fewer days but for longer periods to allow more time for in-depth class projects.
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Use teaching assistants differently Rather than assigning a few teaching assistants (TAs) to handle all the responsibil ities for a particular introductory course, faculty in the physics department at the University of Washington "pool" their TAs so that some grade homework while others help students with tutorials in the classroom, says Paula Heron.11 Offer faculty release time from teaching to redesign courses California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, not only paid faculty to attend a university-sponsored workshop on how to implement innovative approaches to teaching physics; the university also provided some with release time from teaching to implement new approaches, according to Alex Rudolph,12 a profes sor of astronomy and physics.
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found that as faculty time in class increases, salary level decreases taking their teaching to the next level." and that across four-year institutions, schol arly productivity and publications are the -- erek Bruff, D Vanderbilt University strongest predictor of faculty pay. "If you're at a traditional research oriented institution, survival -- or your opinion of what survival is -- determines your behavior," says University of Washington professor Lillian McDermott,13 co-developer of the research-based tutorials described in Chapter 4.
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15 Interview, June 13, 2013. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 193
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The first tool, a Teaching Practices Inventory, is a checklist of whether a lecture course includes characteristics that research has deemed to be effective. Examples include learning goals or outcomes; supporting materials for students; in-class activities, such as pauses to ask for questions, small-group 16 Email from Michelle Momany, March 18, 2014.
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While CIRTL is implemented somewhat differently at each institution, each program is founded on three core ideas: (1) teaching-as-research, in which STEM graduate students and post-docs engage in the systematic use of research to develop and implement effective teaching practices; (2)
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doctoral students to prepare them to implement Twice a month, the fellows participate in meet and advance effective teaching practices. Each year, ings with the steering committee members to discuss 10 to 14 FAST fellows are chosen from a group of their projects or interact with guest speakers who applicants with an interest in teaching and a strong have expertise relevant to their projects.
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c Interview, April 29, 2013. their internships, Delta participants team up with a Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 197
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. ecology course into an inquiry-based lab session in which the undergraduate students asked their own research questions and took field trips to local sites d Interview, April 26, 2013.
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Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 199
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Professional development can have an impact beyond the instructor who directly participates. When Elizabeth Derryberry18 was hired as a biology profes sor at Tulane University in 2011, she hoped to be able to use the instructional strategies she had honed as a postdoctoral fellow in the NSF-funded FIRST IV (Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching)
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, the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU) , and the American Association of Community Colleges, have under taken initiatives to improve undergraduate STEM education.
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As described below, the initiative has developed a framework for systemic change in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning and has selected and provided support to eight mem ber institutions to pilot key aspects of the framework. 202 Reaching Students
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AAU is developing a net cation institutions align teaching practices with work that will enable faculty and administrators evidence about how students learn best in STEM at its member institutions to share best practices disciplines. As a national organization, AAU has an and promote sustainable change in undergradu advantage of being able to convene crucial stake ate STEM teaching and learning.
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. AAU member institutions have designated a campus point of contact to serve as a liaison with AAU for the STEM education initiative.
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Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 205
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" While the ABET standards are unique among accreditation criteria for undergraduate STEM programs, they illustrate how an external group can strong ly influence teaching in a discipline. Sponsoring professional development Disciplinary societies, professional associations, and other national and regional groups play an important role in sponsoring professional development to improve the teaching skills and knowledge of science and engineering instructors.
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21 Interview, December 3, 2013. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 207
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. • As described in Chapter 2, the National Academies and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute sponsor week-long Summer Institute workshops in biology that have reached roughly 1,000 biology instructors since 2004.
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While individual instructors can do much on their own to improve teaching and learning, a great deal more can be achieved when departments, institutions, and external partners are committed to supporting this process. Creating Broader Contexts That Support Research-Based Teaching and Learning 209
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Resources and Further Reading Association of American Universities' Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative www.aau.edu/stem Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (National Research Council, 2012) Chapter 8: Translating Research into Teaching Practice: The Influence of Discipline Based Education Research on Undergraduate Science and Engineering Instruction Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder http://www.colorado.edu/sei/index.html Problem-based learning at the University of Delaware http://www.udel.edu/inst 210 Reaching Students
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