New England Science Faculty Enhancement Collaborative

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There are serious problems in the college and university science classroom including intended majors who switch to other disciplines and pervasive student apathy, especially in introductory level courses. These problems exist because there is too much emphasis on coverage of material and memorization, an atmosphere of competition, and new faculty are either under prepared to teach undergraduate science courses. These issues have stimulated reform efforts that are just beginning to take place. As a result, there is now a real need for programs that help professors incorporate student-active approaches into their classrooms. To address this, we propose to develop a program of workshops centered in 5 sites throughout the northeast where higher education partnerships exist. Our program will target professors, including entry level and young faculty, who teach introductory courses. Hampshire College is the lead agency on this project; the college has a nationally recognized program in student-active, inquiry science teaching. Program objectives are to: 1) effectively reach large numbers of faculty through the "train the trainers" model, 2) give workshop leaders effective training and tools for leading regional workshop programs, 3) introduce workshop participants to effective student-active approaches and the learning theories underlying them, 4) help workshop participants incorporate student-active approach(es) of their choosing into a course, 5) link faculty experienced with student-active teaching (mentors) with regional inexperienced but interested faculty, and especially new faculty, 6) bring together a diverse group of faculty from different disciplines and types of institutions, with special emphasis on underrepresented groups in science, and 7) use consortia as effective means to identify workshops leaders and workshop participants