Collaborative Research: Investigating Contextual Factors that Impact Early-Career Faculty Teaching Practice

许多针对生物学教师的大型专业发展计划旨在帮助教师增加以学习者为中心的教学策略的使用，强调科学实践，以便所有学生都能参与和学习科学。与此同时，公共和私人资助机构正在积极投资于大规模的专业发展项目，但人们对这些投资的长期回报知之甚少，尤其是对刚入职不久的教师。该项目将调查全国生物系早期职业教师实施创新教学实践的程度，并确定对教师培训的投资是否“得到了回报”，特别是，它们是否导致了教学方法的持续变化，并改善了学生的体验和学习。重要的是，本研究的结果将确定影响早期职业教师教学实践的部门和机构层面的变量。本研究的结果将为组织结构如何在所有教师中维持教育创新提供证据，并为将部门作为本科科学教育变革单位的运动提供信息。本研究项目将利用科学教学改革学院（FIRST）网络作为研究系统，调查职业发展对早期职业教师在关键的终身教职前几年的教学实践的纵向影响。这项研究将集中在四种主要机构类型的80名早期职业教师的样本上，并评估组织因素在支持和维持教学变革中的作用。40名教师参加了科学教学改革学院（FIRST）项目，并将与本系未参加FIRST项目的同行进行比较，利用这两个小组来探索支持教育创新的因素。这个综合模型将关注个人价值和自我效能，外部奖励系统，以及为支持或不支持创新教学方法提供基础的组织结构。研究设计允许我们检查以学习者为中心的教学策略在早期职业教师中可能的衰退和增强。这些实证研究结果将为专业发展和组织系统（部门和机构）确定有效的策略，以维持教师教学方式的变化，最终改善学生的学习。与此同时，公共和私人资助机构正在积极投资于大规模的专业发展项目，但人们对这些投资的长期回报知之甚少，尤其是对刚入职不久的教师。拟议的研究将填补这一关键空白，告知跨机构类型项目的专业发展活动如何支持持续，有效的教学实践。学生指标的结果将进一步量化教师专业发展、转型教学实践和学生学习成果之间的联系。

Many large-scale professional development programs for biology faculty are aimed at helping instructors increase the use of learner-centered teaching strategies that emphasize scientific practices, so that all students can engage in and learn science. At the same time that public and private funding agencies are actively investing in large-scale professional development programs, little is known about how those investments pay out over the long term, particularly in early-career faculty. This project will investigate the extent of implementation of innovative teaching practices by early career faculty in biology departments nationwide and determine if investments in faculty training have "paid off," specifically, whether they result in sustained changes in instructional approaches and improved student experiences and learning. Importantly, the results from this study will identify the variables at department and institution levels that affect the teaching practice of early career faculty. Results from this study will provide evidence for how organizational structures can sustain educational innovation among all faculty, informing movements that focus on departments as the unit of change in undergraduate science education. This research project will investigate the longitudinal consequences of professional development on teaching practices of early-career faculty during the critical pre-tenure years, using the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST) network as a study system. The study will focus on a sample of 80 early-career faculty at four major institution types and evaluate the role of organizational factors in supporting and sustaining instructional change. Forty of the faculty participated in the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST) program and will be compared to peers in their department who did not participate in FIRST, using both groups to explore factors that support educational innovation. This integrated model will focus on individual values and self-efficacy, external reward systems, and organizational structures that provide the foundation for supporting or not supporting innovative teaching approaches. The research design allows us to examine possible decay as well as enhancement of learner-centered teaching strategies among early-career faculty. These empirical research findings will identify effective strategies for professional development and organizational systems (departments and institutions) that sustain change in how faculty teach, to ultimately improve student learning. At the same time that public and private funding agencies are actively investing in large-scale professional development programs, little is known about how those investments pay out over the long term, particularly in early-career faculty. The proposed study would fill this critical gap, informing professional development activities in programs across institution types about how to support sustained, effective teaching practice. Results from student metrics will further quantify the connections among faculty professional development, transformed teaching practice, and student learning outcomes.