Students are more likely to learn in college science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classrooms when instructors use teacher discourse moves (TDMs) that encourage student engagement and learning. However, although teaching practices are well studied, TDMs are not well understood in college STEM classrooms. In STEM courses at a minority-serving institution (MSI; n = 74), we used two classroom observation protocols to investigate teaching practices and TDMs across disciplines, instructor types, years of teaching experience, and class size. We found that instructors guide students in active learning activities, but they use authoritative discourse approaches. In addition, chemistry instructors presented more than biology instructors. Also, teaching faculty had relatively high dialogic, interactive discourse, and neither years of faculty teaching experience nor class size had an impact on teaching practices or TDMs. Our results have implications for targeted teaching professional development efforts across instructor and course characteristics to improve STEM education at MSIs.

This case study presents a flexible and dynamic course design administered by multiple instructors simultaneously. The integration of multiple instructors allowed for knowledge exchange in blending complementary behaviors and discourse practices during class sessions. This course design could be adapted to STEM courses in higher education.

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We developed and validated a new classroom observation protocol, Online COPUS (E-COPUS), to measure teaching and learning practices in the online learning environment. We collected COPUS and E-COPUS data from 40 STEM courses before, during the transition, and continuation of emergency remote teaching (ERT). Through weekly discussions among observers, we adjusted six of the original instructor COPUS code descriptions and six of the original student code descriptions to fit the online learning environment. We trained 23 observers to conduct E-COPUS utilizing both in-person and online lecture recordings. To validate E-COPUS, we consulted an expert panel of science educators and education researchers to provide feedback on our code descriptions and complete a matching activity with our E-COPUS code descriptions. We further examined E-COPUS by analyzing the teaching and learning practices of 6 instructors across in-person and online instruction and found that the online functions of breakout rooms, polling, and the chat were utilized to promote active learning activities in the online learning environment. As we prepare for teaching in the future, it is important to have formative assessment tools designed for all course formats to support assessment and improvement of teaching practices in college STEM classrooms.