Examining The Roles of STEM Teaching Faculty in Advancing the Use of Evidence-based Teaching Practices at Research Universities

认识到科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域对我们国家未来的重要性，最近的报告呼吁改变现有的教育实践，以提高STEM毕业生的质量、数量和多样性。这些呼吁导致了循证教学实践的发展，事实证明，这种教学实践可以改善学生的结果。现在的一个主要问题是，我们如何才能在更大范围内推广这些教学做法？该项目考察了与研究型大学相关的两个全国性问题的交集：(1)通过使用循证教学策略改善本科STEM教与学的必要性；(2)聘用以终身教职为重点的教师，他们负责教授改善本科STEM教、学和奖学金的本科课程。该项目将调查有就业保障的讲师(LSOE，他们是符合终身教职条件的以教学为重点的教师)在多大程度上在其系内充当有效的变革推动者，从而为改善研究型机构的STEM教学做出贡献。研究小组假设，聘用lsoe教员将成为部门同事增加循证教学策略采用率和可持续性的主要催化剂。为了研究与研究型大学相关的两个全国性问题，研究团队将使用多种分析方法，包括控制学生和课程差异的准实验性双向固定效应模型，记录和评估课堂行为的创新观察技术，研究地点内教学网络结构和特征的图论分析，以及关于教学信念和教学方法的访谈数据的文字分析。通过这些分析，研究团队旨在确定LSOE模式是否可以成为全国研究密集型机构实施的一种机制，以改变STEM教师的教学实践并改善学生结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recognizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to the future of our nation, recent reports have called for changes in existing educational practices to increase the quality, number, and diversity of STEM graduates. These calls have resulted in development of evidence-based teaching practices that have been shown to improve student outcomes. One major question now is, how can we spread the use of these teaching practices on a larger scale? This project examines the intersection of two national issues relevant to research-focused universities: (1) The need for improvement in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning through the use of evidence-based instructional strategies; and (2) the hiring of tenure-track teaching-focused faculty whose responsibility is teaching undergraduate courses that improve undergraduate STEM teaching, learning, and scholarship. This project will investigate the degree to which Lecturers with Security of Employment (LSOEs, who are tenure-eligible teaching-focused faculty) act as effective change agents within their departments, thus contributing to improving STEM teaching at research-focused institutions. The research team hypothesizes that the hiring of LSOE faculty will act as a major catalyst for increasing the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based instructional strategies by departmental colleagues. To examine the two national issues relevant to research-focused universities, the research team will use multiple analytic approaches, including a quasi-experimental two way fixed effects model to control for variations in students and courses, an innovative observation technique that documents and assesses classroom behaviors, graph theoretic analysis of the structure and characteristics of teaching networks within research sites, and transcript analyses of interview data on beliefs about and approaches to teaching. Through these analyses, the research team aims to identify whether the LSOE model can be a mechanism implemented in research-intensive institutions across the country to transform STEM faculty teaching practices and improve student outcomes.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.