Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees Systemic Change to Support Students' Diverse Pathways (2016) / Chapter Skim
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4 Instructional Practices, Departmental Leadership, and Co-Curricular Supports
4 Instructional Practices, Departmental Leadership, and Co-Curricular Supports
Pages 83-108
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From page 83... ...
education since they represent not only indi vidual faculty values and aspirations, but also the curriculum as a whole beyond the individual courses that faculty teach. • Co-curricular supports, if done well, can provide authentic disciplinary experiences and attend to the social and relational aspects of learning that have been shown to influence students' academic engagement and persistence.
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IMPROVING STEM TEACHING PRACTICES Instructional strategies in undergraduate STEM classrooms matter. The most comprehensive meta-analysis to date illustrates that students learn more in STEM classrooms where instructors use active learning strategies rather than traditional lecturing (Freeman et al., 2014)
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and the Advance Technology Education Program's National Resource Center;1 an increasing number of disciplinary-based journals offer peer-reviewed research about effective practices; and a number of professional organizations make available professional development opportunities for faculty to learn about and practice new pedagogies (see Hilborn, 2013)
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Institutional context, departmental structure and leadership, institutional incentives, and professional development opportunities determine faculty motivation to consider evidence-based approaches to teaching and student learning rather than their own experiences and department tradition. According to a survey conducted during the 2013–2014 academic year, faculty, including faculty in STEM departments, have increased their use of evidence-based instructional strategies (Eagan et al., 2014)
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From page 87... ...
, emphasizes preparing STEM future faculty to bring their scholarship to teaching and develop learning communities for professional development at both the institutional and national levels. CIRTL has also recognized the importance of learning skills that leverage the increasing student diversity in STEM classrooms and research environments as a mechanism to enhance educational excellence.3 Often, the approaches used to encourage faculty to adopt researchbased curricula have not been effective.
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From page 88... ...
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine also have partnered to run summer institutes to develop the teaching skills of faculty and instructional staff.6 The NSF's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program has generated a wide range of professional development resources for instructors involved in technician education, including problem-based learning, linkages with industry, career exploration and advising, and instructing diverse student groups.
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From page 89... ...
and geoscience education (Macdonald et al., 2005) shows that large class sizes and the traditional classroom space may act as barriers to the adoption of innovative teaching approaches by faculty.
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Authentic undergraduate STEM experiences can involve hypothesis-driven, hands-on experimentation in which the outcome is unknown, peer-to-peer support, faculty-student interactions, and academic support. Students can be exposed to authentic STEM experiences in myriad ways, but typically students are provided such experiences via course-based opportunities to do investigations or by participating in a faculty's research laboratory.
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TENURE-TRACK AND CONTINGENT STEM FACULTY APPOINTMENTS The nature of faculty appointments is also a factor in the learning environment that STEM students encounter.
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The department is the critical unit for change in undergraduate STEM education since it represents not only individual faculty values and aspirations, but also the curriculum as an integral whole beyond individual courses. Departmental commitment is critical for the continuous assessment of teaching practices and support for 9 The survey specifically excluded teaching assistants.
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, many opportunities for informal student-faculty interactions, and a strong sense of community supported by departmental leadership across faculty and students. For details on efforts to create and sustain change in undergraduate life science education, see Box 4-2.
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. The conference was attended by over 500 biology faculty, college and university administrators, and other undergraduate biology stakeholders.
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. Specifically, co-curricular programming can mitigate the negative psychological and academic impacts of a stigmatizing STEM academic culture by affirming students' selfperceptions of competence (Gandara and Maxwell-Jolly, 1999; Hurtado et al., 2009; Mabrouk and Peters, 2000)
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. Summer bridge programs that cater to STEM disciplines have been shown to enhance student success (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2012; Gilmer, 2007)
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They are assigned an upper-class mentor and engage in discussions about academics and campus life. Participants in the WISE Summer Bridge are entering members of the WISE Village, a living and learning community designed especially for first- and second-year women majoring in science or engineering at North Carolina State.
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From page 98... ...
operates a 35 hour-a-week drop-in STEM tutoring center.19 Undergraduate tutors in math and science support students enrolled in lower-division gateway STEM courses. The STEM tutoring program at CSUSM benefits both tutors and students.
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One example of a STEM-focused living-learning program that illustrates how institutions are implementing such programs is the LivingLearning Community for Women in STEM at the Douglass College of Rutgers University.20 As part of this program, women studying STEM live in the same residential hall. The residents are provided access to peer study groups, academic and professional development seminars, internship opportunities, roundtable discussions with faculty, and a resource library.
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From page 100... ...
By assembling such a high concentration of high-achieving students in a tightly knit learning community, students continually inspire one another to do more and better."22 All incoming Meyerhoff Scholars attend an accelerated 6-week residential program, called summer bridge. The idea of the summer bridge is to teach students about the program and its approach, as well as to provide tools and skills that will help them in their first semester of college.
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The program has identified 13 key components to their success: recruitment, financial aid, summer bridge, study groups, program values, program community, tutoring, advising and counseling, professional and faculty mentors, summer research internships, faculty involvement, administrative involvement, and family involvement.23 All Meyerhoff Scholars are expected to begin participating in research early in their college careers. Since 1993, the program has graduated over 900 students.
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Existing evidence makes it difficult to know what percentage of classrooms or departments have adopted effective classroom strategies. However, we do know that the nature of faculty appointments is associated with the learning environment that STEM students encounter.
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Paper prepared for the Committee on Barriers and Opportunities in Completing 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. Available: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/ dbasse_072578.pdf [April 2015]
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. Making a difference in science education: The impact of undergraduate research pro grams.
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. Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM instructional practices: An analytic review of the literature.
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Committee on Undergraduate Physics Education Research and Implementation. Board on Physics and Astronomy.
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(2010b) , Undergraduate research participation and STEM graduate degree aspirations among students of color.
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