Collaborative Research: Impact of the Summer Institutes on Faculty Teaching and Student Achievement

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Over the last decade, the National Academies Summer Institutes (SIs) have trained almost 1,000 faculty and instructional staff in "scientific teaching", an approach to STEM instruction based on evidence about how people learn (1,2). The SIs are designed to teach effective use of active learning and assessment with attention to fostering learning by diverse students. The curriculum features an iterative approach to examining the learning benefits associated with these newly introduced teaching practices. At present, only a few studies systematically examine the outcomes of faculty development efforts. This project is an assessment of the effects of SI training on participants' teaching practices and their students' outcomes. This project is developing an evaluation system involving a generalizable protocol for conceptualizing and measuring outcomes of faculty development efforts, using the Summer Institute populations to test this system and its protocol. This effort to determine the outcomes of a long standing faculty development effort is a collaboration among Yale University, the University of Colorado - Boulder, Cornell University, and the University of Connecticut. Intellectual Merit: This project is an important large-scale assessment of scientific teaching practices and their impact on student outcomes. The project is unique because it employs a systems approach to determine effects of the program on adoption of teaching practices and on student achievement. This work is designed to create knowledge about educational practices, instructor behavior change, and student outcomes, while developing broadly useful evaluation tools that can be widely disseminated to enable others to evaluate their STEM education initiatives.Broader Impacts: The results from the study of the institutes are designed to inform future faculty development efforts. The resulting evaluation system provides tools for designing and conducting evaluations of complex projects. In addition, the project is designed to develop important expertise for key participating researchers in the evaluation of faculty development for STEM education.1. J. Handelsman, S. Miller, C. Pfund, Scientific Teaching. (WH Freeman & Co, 2007).2. C. Pfund et al., Professional development. Summer institute to improve university science teaching. Science (New York, N.Y.) 324, 470 (2009).