The disparity between post-secondary STEM instruction and the practices suggested in education and cognitive research is not a novel issue. Despite evidence-based practices being available to practitioners, traditional lecture-based instruction continues to dominate higher STEM education. In this study, we discussed practitioner involvement in biochemistry education research as a potential means to address the gap between research and practice. We used phenomenology as a lens through which to view faculty experiences of participating in a team-based curricular redesign. We administered a concept inventory to examine undergraduate students’ understanding of key concepts and to identify misconceptions. We captured faculty perspectives and reflections on student data through semi-structured interviews, finding that faculty dissatisfaction with traditional practices were rooted in experiences from early on in their teaching careers. Their students demonstrated a lack of conceptual understanding, similar to findings of other studies in undergraduate biochemistry, and key misconceptions the student population held were identified. When examining students’ conceptual understanding data, the faculty gained new insights into where students struggle in the course that they would not have gained without participation in this project. This reinforced their desire to implement curricular change. These findings add to the available data on students’ conceptual understanding in biochemistry and suggest that shared assessments like concept inventories can unify instructors as they engage in team-based curricular reform.

International teaching assistants (ITAs) bring cultural perspectives and language diversity to university programs. However, ITAs can be underserved through traditional professional development initiatives. A mixed-reality teaching simulator module was created to attend to the unique needs of chemistry ITAs and prepare them for active learning instruction. To create the module, seven ITAs were interviewed about their professional development needs. ITAs most commonly wanted to practice asking and answering student questions, engaging disengaged or disrespectful students, and navigating language difficulties with students. The mixed-reality simulated teaching module provided opportunities for ITAs to rehearse one or more of the three focus areas. Three ITAs tested the simulator and reported that using the simulator for professional development with cultural and linguistic layers would be beneficial both to existing and new ITAs. These research findings set the foundation for generating a transformative set of training materials that institutions can use to reduce teaching anxiety and increase the effectiveness of ITAs in the classroom, thus enhancing student learning through more effective active learning instruction.