Supporting College Instructors in Improving College Algebra Teaching and Student Outcomes

德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校(UTSA)的这个项目旨在通过开发一个合作的教师发展计划来改善大学代数的教与学。对于许多STEM专业道路来说，大学代数课程仍然是及时完成学位和取得成功的主要障碍。三个目标将指导项目团队。首先是允许教师相互协作和观察对方的教学。第二是提供资源(包括时间)，帮助教师了解以证据为基础、以学生为中心的教学实践。第三，支持长期转型，实施研究支持的课程改进模式。通过他们的经验，教师将获得以学生为中心的数学教学实践，从而提高学生的成功结果。该项目每年将影响UTSA约1600名潜在的STEM学生，使他们更好地为STEM学位课程所需的后续数学课程做好准备，并将建立一个致力于学院持续改进的教师社区。项目研究和评估将有助于更深入地了解教师的心态和教学实践如何受到教师发展努力的影响，同时也将考察对学生结果的影响。关于大学数学中以学生为中心的学习的有效性，人们知道得很多，但对大学教师如何将这些想法和策略融入课堂的了解却很少。该项目建议实施持续改进(CI)，这是一个经过验证的教学改进框架，以鼓励教师在课堂上更多地以学生为中心的学习。CI框架之前已经在面向未来教师的小学数学课程中进行了研究；本项目建议在大学代数中实施该框架，这是该模式的新背景。调查人员将观察并记录教师在整个拨款周期中对教学和课堂实践的想法是如何变化的。主要数据来源包括对教师课堂的观察、访谈和教学团队会议，这将有助于建立对大学教师在纳入以学生为中心的教学策略时面临的潜在机会和障碍的理解。然后，该项目将把教师的变化与学生的学习成果联系起来，包括：1)概念代数知识的增长；2)大学代数的及格率/不及格率；以及3)大学代数学生在后续数学课程中的成绩。这些结果有可能加强该领域的理解，即转向以学生为中心的教学如何能够改善学生的学习和STEM的成功结果。改善本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大对STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。鉴于高等教育机构的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法，以激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究(I)关于学生参与式学习，(Ii)关于如何有效地多样化和增加对STEM的参与，以及(Iii)提高我们对如何建设高等教育机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将从这些方法中获得如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

This project at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) aims to improve teaching and learning in college algebra through the development of a collaborative faculty development program. For many STEM major pathways, college algebra courses remain a major obstacle for timely degree completion and success. Three objectives will guide the project team. First is to allow instructors to collaborate and observe each other’s teaching. Second is to provide resources (including time) to help instructors learn about evidence-based, student-centered instructional practices. Third is to support long-term transformation implementing a research-supported model for course improvement. Through their experiences, faculty will gain facility with student-centered mathematics teaching practices that will result in improved student success outcomes. The project will impact about 1600 potential STEM students at UTSA per year, better preparing them for subsequent mathematics courses required by STEM degree programs and will build a community of instructors dedicated to the continued improvement of the college. Project research and evaluation will facilitate a deeper understanding of how instructors’ mindset and teaching practices are impacted by the faculty development efforts, while also examining impacts on student outcomes.Instructional transformation at the post-secondary level is difficult to catalyze. Much is known about the effectiveness of student-centered learning in college mathematics, but not much is understood about how instructors at the college level incorporate these ideas and strategies into their classrooms. This project proposes to implement Continuous Improvement (CI), a proven instructional improvement framework, to encourage instructors to include more student-centered learning in their classrooms. The CI framework has previously been studied with elementary mathematics content courses for prospective teachers; this project proposes to implement it in college algebra, which is a new context for this model. The investigators will observe and document how instructors’ thinking about instruction and classroom practices change throughout the grant cycle. Major data sources include observations of instructors’ classrooms, interviews and instructional team meetings, which will help build understanding of the potential opportunities and barriers that college instructors face when incorporating student-centered teaching strategies. The project will then connect instructor change to student learning outcomes, including: 1) growth in conceptual algebra knowledge; 2) pass/fail rates in college algebra; and 3) outcomes of college algebra students in subsequent mathematics courses. The results have the potential to strengthen the field’s understanding of how shifting to student-centered instruction can result in improved student learning and success outcomes in STEM. The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program) aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.