2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Facilitating Change in Instructional Practice in a Faculty Development Program through Classroom Observations and Formative Feedback Coaching

Presented at Supporting Faculty in Course Development and Pedagogy

To increase active learning in engineering education, faculty from seven engineering disciplines participated in an NSF professional development project. Faculty attended eight workshops on evidence-based instructional strategies (EBIS) in fall 2016 and six Community-of-Practice (CoP) discussion sessions in spring 2017.

Six classroom observations were conducted over the course of the year—two in the fall and four in the spring using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) administered by trained observers. The RTOP is a 25-item tool that measures student-centered vs. teacher-centered instruction in STEM disciplines. In the CoP discussions participants learned about the RTOP instrument and what it measured. Subsequently, 22 of 27 participants signed up for individual conferences to discuss their observations and scores with an instructional coach. This formative feedback, using the RTOP results to guide the discussion, has proven to be effective in getting faculty to embrace active learning.

The individual coaching conferences included a review of the RTOP rubric, self-reflection on their instruction, and brainstorming specifics strategies learned in the workshops the previous semester to incorporate into their future teaching practices. In addition to the RTOP scores, participants were provided with one to three areas of reinforcement (what went well) and one to three areas of refinement (areas to improve) from each observation, using the language from the RTOP rubric. At the end of the spring semester, 14 participants had follow-up conferences that confirmed implementation of the strategies discuss earlier and afforded the opportunity to reflect on their success.
Several principles of coaching were developed during this first year. Because the feedback was formative, conversations centered around how to use the information for improvement. Formative feedback from instructional coaching provided a roadmap for improvement, and helped move the conversation away from final, summative evaluations of teaching ability that are commonly a part of performance reviews. Feedback was specific and timely. Having the common language of content from the workshops and the RTOP rubric aided communication in the coaching process. Discussing pedagogy with a coach who had actually been in their classroom multiple times seemed to enhance rapport. Using the CoP to discuss disciplinary content as it related to teaching complemented the pedagogy discussions participants had with the instructional coach. The results of the aggregated RTOP data collected from this first group of faculty will be used to guide coaching strategies for future cohorts.

Using RTOP observations in conjunction with instructional coaching provided an opportunity to give instructors direct formative feedback on their teaching in the exact context of the teaching environment they experience. This hands-on approach amplified and solidified their learning about pedagogies of engagement that were provided in the more theoretical context of the workshops. This combination shows promise as a tool for faculty development in teaching.

Authors

Kara L. Hjelmstad Arizona State University [biography]

Kara Hjelmstad has currently worked as a faculty associate and student teacher supervisor for Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. After earning a BA degree in elementary education and an M.Ed. degree in curriculum and instruction, she spent twelve years teaching K-5 and enrichment at the elementary level.

In 2010, Kara began teaching courses and supervising student teachers at ASU. Kara is TAP certified, an evaluation system designed to improve teaching effectiveness and student achievement. The TAP evaluation involves classroom observations, coaching, and feedback/reflection for professional growth. Kara has worked with 60+ student teachers in various subjects at the pre-K through 12th grade level, and conducted over 100 TAP classroom observations.

Since the fall of 2016, Kara has been working with the JTFD Project, an NSF grant working to improve active learning in engineering education. She has completed 300 RTOP classroom observations in ASU engineering courses (civil, environmental, construction, chemical, aero/mechanical, materials, transportation, and biomedical engineering). The RTOP or Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol, is a rubric designed to assess student centered instruction in math and science. Kara also provided instructional coaching for 37 engineering faculty grant participants, after their teaching observations.
Prof. Keith D. Hjelmstad Arizona State University [biography]

Keith D. Hjelmstad is President's Professor of Civil Engineering in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University.
Prof. Stephen J. Krause Arizona State University [biography]

Stephen Krause is professor in the Materials Science Program in the Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches in the areas of introductory materials engineering, polymers and composites, and capstone design. His research interes
Dr. Lindy Hamilton Mayled Arizona State University [biography]

Lindy Hamilton Mayled is the Director of Instructional Effectiveness for the Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She has a PhD in Psychology of Learning, Education, and Technology from Grand Canyon University. Her research and are
Dr. Eugene Judson http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-0124-8476 Arizona State University [biography]

Eugene Judson is an Associate Professor of for the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. He also serves as an Extension Services Consultant for the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT). His past experiences include having been a middle school science teacher, Director of Academic and Instructional Support for the Arizona Department of Education, a research scientist for the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (CRESMET), and an evaluator for several NSF projects. His first research strand concentrates on the relationship between educational policy and STEM education. His second research strand focuses on studying STEM classroom interactions and subsequent effects on student understanding. He is a co-developer of the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) and his work has been cited more than 2200 times and he has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals such as Science Education and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
Dr. Lydia Ross Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Lydia Ross is a clinical assistant professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. She also serves as the executive director of the Association for Education Finance & Policy. She holds a PhD in Educational Policy and Evaluation from Arizona St
Prof. Robert J. Culbertson
Prof. James A. Middleton Arizona State University [biography]

James A. Middleton is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and former Director of the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology at Arizona State University. Previously he held the Elmhurst Energy Chair in STEM education at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Dr. Middleton was Associate Dean for Research in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University, and Director of the Division of Curriculum and Instruction. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992, where he also served in the National Center for Research on Mathematical Sciences Education as a postdoctoral scholar.
Dr. Casey Jane Ankeny Northwestern University [biography]

Casey J. Ankeny, PhD is an Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of MS Program at Northwestern University.
Dr. Ying-Chih Chen Arizona State University [biography]

Ying-Chih Chen is an assistant professor in the Division of Teacher Preparation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

His research takes two distinct but interrelated paths focused on elementary students’ learning in science and engineering as well as in-service science teachers’ professional development. The first focus involves how language as a learning tool improves students’ conceptual understandings, literacy, and representation competencies in science. His second research focus is on how in-service teachers develop their knowledge for teaching science and engineering in argument-based inquiry classrooms. This research is aimed at developing measures of teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for adopting the argument-based inquiry approach, as well as developing tools to capture the interactive nature of PCK.

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