Collaborative Research: What Difference does Early-Career Faculty Development Make? A Research Study of Multiple Models

在大学STEM教学中，高影响力的教学实践已被证明可以显著提高学生的成绩，包括成绩、学生的信心和兴趣以及记忆力。因此，帮助教师实施高影响力的实践可以改善STEM教育。然而，由于教师发展项目可能是耗时且昂贵的，因此了解这些项目是否有效地改变了大学教师的做法是很重要的。在这个项目中，研究人员将调查早期职业数学教师以教学为重点的专业发展的结果。该研究团队将与美国数学协会的NExT项目（教学新经验）和美国数学协会两年制学院的access项目（推进社区大学职业：教育，奖学金和服务）合作。NeXT项目和access项目都是类似的结构，“高接触”的早期职业，以教学为重点的专业发展项目。项目研究人员将收集数据，以了解参与这些项目的教师的教学实践如何变化，以及这些变化与他们的专业发展经历有何关系。由于这些项目得到了主要专业协会的支持，因此它们是许多STEM学科中常见的模型的示例。因此，针对早期职业数学教师的类似专业发展计划的结果可能与其他STEM学科相关。这项混合方法研究将使用有效的教学实践措施来检验早期职业生涯教学重点专业发展计划对STEM领域教学和领导力的影响。研究设计包括四个子研究，这些子研究共同提供了参与者作为教师、学者和领导者的发展的深入检查，因为他们参与了早期职业生涯教学为重点的专业发展项目，并了解这些结果是如何从项目设计中产生的。本研究采用调查、课堂观察和课程人工制品，结合访谈和学生调查，来记录教学实践中的变化。它将确定与新教师角色相关的其他职业成果。对当前以早期职业教学为重点的专业发展项目群体的研究将从大样本中收集调查前后的数据和观察结果，与申请但未参与的个人的数据进行比较。定性研究将记录项目活动，并探索这些活动如何解释结果。另外，回顾性调查措施将比较项目校友与非参与申请人的长期结果。虽然NExT项目和ACCESS项目有许多共同的目标，但其模型的差异将使团队能够辨别结果的性质和深度的差异，并确定哪些早期职业教学相关的专业发展特征在哪些方面是重要的。美国数学协会的早期职业指导网络提供了与第三种“轻触式”指导模式的比较，这种模式支持新教师，但不提供围绕循证教学实践的具体干预。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

High impact instructional practices in college STEM teaching have been shown to significantly improve student outcomes including performance, student confidence and interest, and retention. Thus, helping faculty implement high-impact practices could improve STEM education. However, because faculty development programs can be time-intensive and expensive, it is important to know if such programs are effective in changing college teachers' practices. In this project, researchers will investigate the results of teaching-focused professional development on early-career mathematics faculty. The research team will collaborate with the Mathematical Association of America's Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) and the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges' Project ACCCESS (Advancing Community College Careers: Education, Scholarship, and Service). Both Project NeXT and Project ACCCESS are similarly structured, "high-touch" early-career, teaching-focuses professional development programs. The project researchers will collect data to understand how the teaching practices of faculty participating in these programs change and how those changes relate to their professional development experiences. Since these programs are supported by major professional societies, they are examples of a model that is common across many STEM disciplines. Thus, results of similar professional development programs for early career mathematics faculty may be relevant across other STEM disciplines.This mixed methods study will use valid measures of teaching practice to examine the impact of early-career teaching-focused professional development programs on teaching and leadership in STEM fields. The research design includes four sub-studies that together provide an in-depth examination of participants' development as teachers, scholars, and leaders because of their participation in early-career teaching-focused professional development programs, and to understand how these outcomes arise from program design. The study uses surveys, classroom observation, and course artifacts, triangulated with interviews and student surveys, to document changes in teaching practice. It will identify other career outcomes relevant to the new faculty role. Studies of current early-career teaching-focused professional development program cohorts will gather pre/post survey data and observations from large samples, to compare with data from individuals who applied but did not participate. A qualitative study will document program activities and explore how these activities may explain outcomes. Separately, retrospective survey measures will compare longer-term outcomes for program alumni vs. non-participating applicants. While Project NExT and Project ACCESS share many goals, differences in their models will enable the team to discern differences in the nature and depth of outcomes and to identify what early-career teaching-related professional development features are important in what ways. The Mathematical Association of America's Early Career Mentoring Network offers comparison to a third "light touch" mentoring model that supports new faculty but does not offer a specific intervention around evidence-based instructional practices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.