The CIRTL Network: 25 Research Universities Preparing a National Faculty to Advance STEM Undergraduate Learning

研究、教学和学习整合中心（CIRTL）于2002年在美国国家科学基金会的资助下成立。其使命是扩大和丰富研究生教育和博士后准备，以发展一支具有能力和承诺的国家STEM教师队伍，为所有学生的学习实施和改进有效的教学实践。CIRTL的第一个十年的运作表明，研究型大学可以有效地将未来的教师培养成为富有成效的研究人员和优秀的知识渊博的教师。CIRTL开发、实施并评估了基于三个核心理念的成功策略：教学即研究、学习社区和通过多样性学习。2011年，STEM领域的1500名未来教师参与了六所研究型大学的学习社区，这些大学组成了CIRTL网络的原型。CIRTL评估和相关研究表明，在这样的学习社区中，未来的STEM教师可以有效地使用和推进高影响力的教学实践，并在他们被聘为新教师后继续这样做。2011年秋季，CIRTL网络扩大到包括25所不同的研究型大学；这些大学总共培养了美国26%的STEM博士。这些合作伙伴正在所有25所大学合作建立跨学科学习社区，可以明显地培养未来的教师，他们使用并改进本科教育的最佳实践。拟议的学习社区的共同特征包括教学即研究经验、导师培训、教学和学习方面的博士后准备、使用CIRTL核心理念作为新项目和现有项目的统一框架、加强助教项目的概念以及促进代表性不足群体的参与。作为扩大规模的一部分，正在开发一个跨网络学习社区，以吸引所有25所大学的多样性和专业知识，以进行教学、指导、共享学习、学术探索和未来教师的跨学科合作。CIRTL还致力于成为一个可持续发展的社区。它正在进行组织、行政和财务结构的试点和研究，研究信息技术和评估方法的有前途的发展，以支持一个制度化的CIRTL网络，在未来可扩展到更多的大学。25所成员大学的CIRTL学习社区预计每年培养7000名研究生和博士后，其中2200名预计每年完成博士工作。这一产量相当于目前全国毕业6年的STEM教师产量的25%。通过全国CIRTL论坛、网站、出版物、跨STEM学科的演讲，以及与STEM学科协会和国家高等教育组织的合作，CIRTL网络将影响网络外大学的研究生教育。CIRTL网络的数量可能会增加。还有相当多的研究型大学表示有兴趣加入该网络。

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) began in 2002 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. Its mission is to broaden and enrich graduate education and post-doctoral preparation in order to develop a national STEM faculty with the capability and commitment to implement and improve effective teaching practices for the learning of all students. The first decade of operation of CIRTL has demonstrated that research universities can effectively prepare future faculty to be both productive researchers and excellent, knowledgeable teachers. CIRTL has developed, implemented, and evaluated successful strategies based on three core ideas: Teaching as Research, learning communities, and learning-through-diversity. In 2011, 1500 future faculty across STEM participated in the learning communities of the six research universities that comprise the prototype CIRTL Network. CIRTL evaluations and associated research on efforts to prepare future faculty indicate that future STEM faculty in such learning communities can effectively use and advance high impact teaching and learning practices and continue to do so once they are hired as new members of the faculty. In Fall 2011 the CIRTL Network expanded to include 25 diverse research universities; together these universities produce 26% of the STEM Ph.D.s in the United States. These partners are collaborating to establish interdisciplinary learning communities at all 25 universities that can demonstrably prepare future faculty who use and improve best practices in undergraduate education. Common features of the proposed learning communities include teaching-as-research experiences, mentor training, post-doctoral preparation in teaching and learning, use of CIRTL core ideas as a unifying framework for new and existing programs, conceptual strengthening of teaching assistant programs, and facilitation of participation from underrepresented groups. As part of this scale-up a cross-Network learning community is being developed to engage the diversity and expertise of all 25 universities for teaching, mentoring, shared learning, scholarly exploration, and cross-disciplinary collaboration of future faculty. CIRTL is also engaged in efforts to become a sustainable community. It is engaged in piloting and studying organizational, administrative, and financial structures, examining promising developments in information technology and evaluation methods that support an institutionalized CIRTL Network that is scalable to larger numbers of universities in the future. The CIRTL learning communities in the 25 member universities are expected to educate 7,000 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows each year, of whom 2,200 are estimated to complete their doctoral work annually. This yield is comparable to 25% of the current national production rate of STEM faculty 6 years out of graduate school. Through national CIRTL Forums, web sites, publications, presentations across STEM disciplines, and collaborations with STEM disciplinary societies and national higher education organizations, the CIRTL Network will impact graduate education in universities beyond the Network. The CIRTL Network Is likely to grow in number. A significant number of additional research universities have expressed interest in joining the network.