Insights into Systemically Transforming Teaching & Learning
Historically, innovations in university-level teaching have often occurred as heroic efforts by individuals who pioneer change, or as part of an externally funded research project. More recently, institutions have begun to create centers to support innovations systemically. This study looks at the early efforts of a new center established to systemically advance STEM teaching and learning at an engineering university.
This paper explores the impact of targeted approaches on teaching practices across two STEM disciplines (electrical engineering and chemistry) by working with faculty who were interested in increasing student engagement and improving student end-of-course success.
Within this study, we focus on innovations around three target areas:
1. Course design to create a conceptually coherent and rigorous instructional sequence (Wiggans & McTighe, 1998)
2. Creating shifts in classroom and school culture towards an efforts-based learner (Resnick & Hall, 2000)
3. Active learning approaches that engage students in cognitive wrestling around key concepts (Prince, 2004)
Research indicates that innovative practices in these areas lead to significant changes in student understanding, perception, and skills. For the purpose of this paper, we focus on documenting shifts in instructor practices. We begin by describing the theoretical framework that informs the center’s efforts in working with faculty to change beliefs, understandings, and practices. We also discuss the approaches that the center utilized to encourage and support the innovations. These approaches engage the faculty in reflective practices, structure paths to dig into course designs and content, analyze student learning, and consider different course design and instructional approaches to enhance the course.
We include a discussion of student-level data that is being gathered, but the data analysis will be reported in separate papers as the analysis is completed. Factors that influence professional learning and shifts in practices are discussed to consider conditions that propagate systemic advances to STEM teaching and learning.
Dr. Spiegel is Assistant Vice President for Online Education and was the founding Director, Trefny Innovative Instruction Center at the Colorado School of Mines. He served as Chair, Disciplinary Literacy in Science and as Associate Director, Engineering Education Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh; Director of Research & Development for a multimedia company; and as founding Director of the Center for Integrating Research & Learning (CIRL) at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. His current efforts focus on innovation of teaching practices in STEM fields and systemic change within higher education.
Stephanie Claussen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University. She previously spent eight years as a Teaching Professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society Division and the Electrical Engineering Departments at the Colorado School of Mines. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from MIT and a M.S. and Ph.D in electrical engineering with a Ph.D. minor in education from Stanford University.
After completing a B.S. in Chemistry at the University of South Dakota, I studied laser micro-spectroscopy and X-ray microscopy at the University of California-Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, earning my PhD in Physical Chemistry. I rounded that out with a post-doc in Bioengineering at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO, where I found that my true passion was in explaining problem-solving skills and the workings of nature to those with varied interests. I joined the Teaching Faculty at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO in 2012, where I teach and write new lecture and lab curriculum for General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Thermodynamics. There, I have been truly inspired by the bright and motivated students that fill our campus. Like many Coloradans, I enjoy as much hiking and camping in the beautiful Rocky Mountains as I can fit into my schedule, a little bit of skiing, as well as listening to and performing music.
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