MATH-GAINS: Growing as Adaptive Instructors in Gateway to STEM Courses

该项目将解决国家需要提高科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）劳动力的数量和质量。 沿着这些路线，微积分课程是通往STEM专业和职业的门户;然而，这些课程的全国成功率仍然太低。该项目的前提是，为了提高学生的学习和成功的微积分课程，在教学实践的转变将需要发生。虽然过去的努力已经产生了各种各样的最佳实践教学微积分，这些做法仍然没有被广泛使用的期望。中佛罗里达大学数学-性别问题信息和联网系统项目将建立一个部门模式，可用于满足全国的这一需要。首先，数学-性别问题信息和联网系统将发展一种文化，使数学系的教员在微积分课程的教学中坚持采用最佳做法。教师将在团队中学习和实践这些教学策略，并在课程中衡量学生的学习情况。该项目将提供专业发展，反馈和反思的机会。将研究采用这些教学策略的过程，以确定使大型研究型大学的教师能够成功实施这些方法的因素，以便其他部门和机构可以采用这种模式。此外，数学-性别问题信息和联网系统将允许研究中学后微积分的最佳教学做法。30名学生的目标群体将在三个学期的微积分序列持续受到影响，从而提高学生对这些学生的数学，保留率和毕业率的理解，以及对研究人员和教师的循证教学累积效应的了解。数学-认识性别问题信息和联网系统项目将建立在以研究为基础的变革战略之上，其执行设计将利用这些变革理论所确定的关键特征来改变数学系的文化。教师将参与长期干预，使他们能够灵活地选择符合他们兴趣的教学策略。每年，由教师和研究生助教组成的学习社区将从文献中学习，从循证教学实践菜单中选择，为涉及这些实践的项目开发学习材料，并在秋季和春季学期实施他们的项目。改革后的教学观察协议将用于评估循证实践的实施水平，促进教师反思，并提出改进的途径。教师将收集有关学生学习的数据，以评估他们在微积分中为不同学生群体实施实践的有效性。正在进行的评估将建立知识基础，为创建一个模型的制度变革，在微积分中应用基于证据的教学实践成为标准和永久的教师实践。来自每年学习社区的教师参与者将向当地，地区和国家的其他教师传播他们的项目。

This project will address the national need to improve quantity and increase quality of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Along these lines, calculus courses are a gateway to STEM majors and careers; however, the national success rate in these courses is still too low. The premise of the project is that to increase student learning and success in calculus courses, a shift in teaching practices will need to occur. While past efforts have produced a variety of best practices for teaching calculus, these practices are still not used as widely as desired. The University of Central Florida (UCF) MATH-GAINS project will create a departmental model that can be used to address this national need. First, MATH-GAINS will develop a culture in which Department of Mathematics faculty members persistently apply best practices in their teaching of calculus courses. Instructors will work in teams to learn about and practice these teaching strategies and measure student learning in their courses. The project will provide professional development, feedback, and opportunities for reflection. The process of adopting these teaching strategies will be studied to identify the factors that enable faculty at a large, research-intensive university to successfully implement such methods so that the model could be adapted by other departments and institutions. Additionally, MATH-GAINS will allow studies of best teaching practices for postsecondary calculus. A target group of 30 students will be persistently impacted over the three-semester calculus sequence, resulting in increased student understanding of the mathematics, retention and graduation rates for these students, and knowledge about the cumulative effect of evidence-based instruction for researchers and faculty. The MATH-GAINS project will build on research-based change strategies, and its implementation design will use critical features identified by those theories of change to shift the culture of mathematics faculty. Instructors will participate in long-term interventions that allow them the flexibility to choose instructional strategies that match their interests. Each year, learning communities consisting of faculty members and graduate teaching assistants will learn from the literature, select from a menu of evidence-based teaching practices, develop learning materials for projects involving those practices, and implement their projects during both fall and spring semesters. The Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol will be used to assess the level of implementation of evidence-based practices, prompt faculty reflection, and suggest avenues for improvement. Faculty will collect data on student learning to assess the effectiveness of their implemented practices for diverse student populations in calculus. On-going evaluation will build the knowledge base for the creation of a model for institutional change, where application of evidence based teaching practices in calculus becomes standard and perpetual faculty practice. Faculty participants from each year's learning community will disseminate their projects to other faculty locally, regionally, and nationally.