A substantial body of prior research demonstrates the efficacy of active learning pedagogical practices. In particular, student-centered teaching strategies have been shown to promote greater levels of student engagement, achievement, and retention. Despite strong evidence in favor of student-centered teaching strategies, the majority of faculty continue to use the more traditional lecture format, or instructor-centered teaching practices, in their own classrooms. As such, there is a strong need for professional development to increase faculty awareness and use of active learning pedagogical practices. This complete research-based paper discusses a successful faculty development program designed to increase awareness and use of student-centered, or active learning, pedagogical practices amongst a multi-disciplinary group of engineering faculty.
The XXXX professional development program was a multi-disciplinary program at a large southwestern university in the United States and was funded through NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE). Following a train-the-trainer model, the professional development program involved multiple cohorts across seven engineering disciplines. In their first year in the program, faculty (n=84) participated in a series of 8 biweekly workshops over the fall semester and 6 communities of practice (CoP) sessions in the spring semester. Topics discussed during the workshops and CoP sessions included active learning, cooperation, student motivation, Bloom’s taxonomy, and inclusive teaching practices. In the second year of the program, faculty participated in eight continuing communities of practice sessions.
A detailed discussion of program results will be presented in the final paper. Key highlights include a significant increase, 13%, in faculty use of active learning strategies after participating in the program. All participants reported that the program was a valuable use of their time and that they would recommend this program to a colleague. This paper describes the program structure, best practices for managing professional development programs, evaluation framework and strategy, major program results, and concludes with a discussion of key takeaways for moving forward.
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 andPolicy. She holds a PhD in Educational Policy and Evaluation from Arizona State University. Her research focuses on equity and access and in higher education, with a focus on STEM.
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 interests include faculty development and evaluating conceptual knowledge and strategies to promote conceptual change. He has co-developed a Materials Concept Inventory and a Chemistry Concept Inventory for assessing conceptual knowledge and change for materials science and chemistry classes. He is currently conducting research in two areas. One is studying how strategies of engagement and feedback and internet tool use affect conceptual change and impact on students' attitude, achievement, and persistence. The other is on a large-scale NSF faculty development program and its effect on change in faculty teaching beliefs, engagement strategies, and classroom practice. Recent honors include coauthoring the ASEE Best Paper Award in the Journal of Engineering Education in 2013 and the ASEE Mike Ashby Outstanding Materials Educator Award in 2018.
Keith D. Hjelmstad is President's Professor of Civil Engineering in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University.
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.
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 and her research and areas of interest are in improving educational outcomes for STEM students through the integration of active learning and technology-enabled frequent feedback.
Robert J. Culbertson is an Associate Professor of Physics. Currently, he teaches introductory mechanics and electrodynamics for physics majors and a course in musical acoustics, which was specifically designed for elementary education majors. He is director of the ASU Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) Project, which strives to produce more and better high school physics teachers. He is also director of Master of Natural Science degree program, a graduate program designed for in-service science teachers. He works on improving persistence of students in STEM majors, especially under-prepared students and students from under-represented groups.
Kara Hjelmstad has been a faculty associate and student teacher supervisor for Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University since 2010. Previously, she earned an M.Ed. degree in curriculum and instruction, and spent twelve years teaching at the elementary level.
From the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2019, Kara worked 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.
Sarah Hoyt is currently the Education Project Manager for the NSF-funded JTFD Engineering faculty development program. Her educational background includes two Master's degrees from Grand Canyon University in Curriculum and Instruction and Education Administration. Her areas of interest are in student inclusion programs and creating faculty development that ultimately boost engagement and performance in students from lower SES backgrounds. Prior to her role as project manager, Sarah worked as the SEI Coordinator for a local high school and has also developed an inclusion program for Migrant and Immigrant students that utilized co-teaching and active learning as keystones of the program. She began her educational career as a high school teacher, teaching courses in English, math, and science.
Kristi Glassmeyer is a Ph.D student in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Arizona State University.
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