Transforming College Teaching: Statewide Implementation of the Faculty Learning Program to Improve STEM Undergraduate Teaching and Learning

转型学院教学项目意义重大，因为它将通过在全州范围内实施支持教师转变大学水平教学的专业学习计划，提高加州学生在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)本科课程中的成绩。该项目加深了教职员工对学习如何发生以及如何支持学习的理解，包括如何促进和设计讲座课程使其更加积极，并促进学生学习STEM概念。在这个项目中，来自两年制和四年制院校的STEM教师将参与学习社区，以改善他们的教学方式。他们将建立关系，了解彼此的教学环境，从而协调加州三级中学后教育系统-美国最大的公立高等教育系统-教授STEM课程的方式。从两年制转到四年制院校的学生将为学习STEM课程做好准备，从而在STEM课程中脱颖而出，从而提高STEM的成就率和保留率。实施最近制定的教师学习计划(FLP)的转型大学教学项目的目标是：(1)培养机构能力，以支持STEM教师通过发展和实施改善他们的教学实践；(2)在加州各地的2年制和4年制院校的STEM教师之间发展社区和互补的教学实践；以及(3)研究改变的教学实践对STEM学生参与度和成绩的影响。在第一年，加州州立大学(CSU)和加州大学(UC)的九所院校承诺实施FLP的要素。更多的机构将在第二年和第三年实施这一计划，从各自的机构和当地社区学院招聘STEM教师，这些学院的转化率很高。这些学院和大学在STEM教学方面的师资发展能力水平各不相同，与全国其他机构类似；为了解决这一问题，项目设计中包括了采用FLP的三种能力建设模式。该项目将为教师开发人员提供知识和工具，为STEM教师做好准备，以提高机构支持STEM教师发展的能力。通过提供以研究为基础、经过测试和记录的教师专业学习计划，以改进教学实践，该项目可被全国各地的高等教育系统和机构采用。

The Transforming College Teaching project is significant because it will improve student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate courses in California through statewide implementation of a professional learning program that supports faculty in transforming college-level teaching. The program deepens faculty members' understanding of how learning happens and how to support learning, including how to facilitate and design lecture courses to be more active and to promote student learning of STEM concepts. In this project, STEM faculty from 2- and 4-year institutions will participate in learning communities that improve how they teach. They will build relationships and understanding of each others' teaching contexts, thus aligning the ways in which STEM courses are taught across California's three-tiered, post-secondary education system, the largest public higher education system in the nation. Students transferring from 2-year into 4-year institutions will be prepared as learners to excel across STEM curricula as a result of this alignment, leading to improved success and retention in STEM. The goals of the Transforming College Teaching project, which implements the recently developed Faculty Learning Program (FLP), are to: (1) cultivate institutional capacity to provide support for STEM faculty to improve their teaching practice through development and implementation; (2) develop community and complementary instructional practices between STEM faculty in 2- and 4-year institutions across California; and (3) examine the impact of changed teaching practice on student engagement and achievement in STEM. In year 1, nine California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) institutions have committed to implement elements of the FLP. Additional institutions will implement this program in years 2 and 3, recruiting STEM faculty from their respective institutions and from local community colleges that have high transfer rates into their institutions. These colleges and universities have varying levels of capacity for faculty development in STEM teaching, similar to other institutions nationally; to address this, three capacity-building models for adopting FLP are included in the design of the project. The project will provide faculty developers, and prepare STEM faculty, with the knowledge and tools to increase institutional capacity to support STEM faculty development. By providing access to a research-based, tested, and documented faculty professional learning program for improving teaching practice, this project can be adopted by post-secondary education systems and institutions across the country.