Enhancing STEM Student Learning through Faculty Development: Workshops for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty

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The goals of the workshop are to: 1. Reach a large fraction of the physics and astronomy faculty in tenure-track positions prior to their receiving tenure; 2. Help participants develop knowledge about recent developments in physics and astronomy pedagogy and the assessment of changes in pedagogy; and 3. Work with participants to integrate workshop ideas and materials into their classrooms in a way that has a positive impact on their students' learning, their departments and their own professional development. Intellectual Merit: Physics and astronomy faculty who enter the professorate directly from graduate school or from a postdoctoral position typically have not had experience with the type of teaching that physics and astronomy education research (PER and AER) has shown to be effective. The New Physics and Astronomy Faculty Workshops, with a combination of plenary sessions and small breakout groups run by national leaders in physics education, introduce participants to pedagogical methods that research has found to be effective in actively engaging students in learning. Most of these pedagogical methods have been developed with NSF funding, and the workshop provides an important means of disseminating these effective teaching strategies to a large fraction of new tenure-track physics and astronomy faculty. Further, the workshop introduces new physics and astronomy faculty to the scholarship of teaching and to methods of assessing and evaluating student learning within a framework of general professional development. Broader Impacts: The five-year project expects to engage approximately 600 new physics and astronomy faculty members, or 40-50% of all new faculty, in about 60% of physics and astronomy departments. External evaluation of the project carried out in 2006-2007 shows that the New Faculty Workshop has had a positive impact on the workshop participants' students, the students' learning, and their departments. A number of the workshop participants from the early years of the project have served as chairs of their departments, and their experience with the New Faculty Workshop has positively influenced the courses taught in their departments and changed departmental views on what constitutes effective teaching. In addition, the New Physics and Astronomy Faculty Workshops are being used as models for developing similar programs by other scientific societies. All of these activities taken collectively can play a transformative role in enhancing undergraduate STEM education.