Short and Long-Term Impacts of the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative New Faculty Workshop

Abstract

Postsecondary chemistry instructors typically have received little pedagogical training as graduate students and postdoctoral research assistants. Moreover, professional development opportunities are often limited at their own institution. This lack of training has resulted in a gap between the instructional strategies enacted in chemistry courses and the results of discipline-based education research. Members of the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative initiated the New Faculty Workshop (CSC NFW) program in 2012 in order to address this gap. This annual, two-day workshop provides newly-hired chemistry assistant professors from research-intensive universities with training on evidence-based instructional practices. This article presents the results of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design study that evaluates the short and long-term impacts of the workshop. Online surveys were collected immediately before and after the workshop, as well as one year later from CSC NFW participants and a control group that consisted of newly-hired chemistry faculty who did not participate in the workshop. Surveys measured faculty's awareness and use of evidence-based instructional practices, teaching self-efficacy, and beliefs about teaching. Classroom video recordings were also collected during the fall semester following the workshop and two years later. These data were triangulated with the Student Evaluation for Educational Quality (SEEQ) survey, which was collected from students in the observed classrooms. Findings indicate that, in the short-term, the CSC NFW was successful in raising workshop participants' self-efficacy, shifting their teaching beliefs toward student-centered teaching, and increasing their use of interactive teaching. Longitudinal data demonstrate that further pedagogical support is required in order for these impacts to be sustained.

Beliefs about learning and enacted instructional practices: An investigation in postsecondary chemistry education

“…Descriptive information about differences between faculty members who operate their classrooms in different ways is supportive of the TCSR model as a framework with which to structure future understanding of chemistry education. This result is similar to those found by others utilizing the TCSR model (Enderle et al, 2013(Enderle et al, , 2014Gibbons et al, 2017;Guerrero, 2010;Stains et al, 2015).…”

“…The TCSR model is practical for understanding future adoption and development of curricular reforms and has been used to frame and explain growth of reform in K‐20 STEM education (Enderle, Southerland, & Grooms, ; Gibbons et al, ; Graves, Hughes, & Balgopal, ; Lund & Stains, ). The model, however, has not been widely used in postsecondary science settings (e.g., Stains, Pilarz, & Chakraverty, ).…”

“…Developers of EBIPs must recognize the challenge that reform efforts hold for instructors who have become accustomed to traditional methods of instruction (Henderson et al, ). To disseminate evidence to support the impact of EBIPs, professional development programs are continually designed and offered to encourage adoption (Bauer et al, ; Enderle et al, ; Hutchins & Friedrichsen, ; Lakshmanan et al, ; LLawrenz, Huffman, & Gravely, ; Richards‐Babb, Penn, & Withers, ; Stains et al, ). Professional development programs are best equipped to demonstrate the utility of EBIPs (Boz & Uzuntiryaki, ; Struyven et al, ).…”

Facilitating Instructor Adoption of Inquiry-Based Learning in College Mathematics

“…Other options may include hosting occasional online, themed discussions or involving teaching and learning centers at participants' home institutions. The New Faculty Workshops for chemistry professors include these approaches as follow-up support thought to increase the impact of their workshops (Stains et al 2015).…”

Integrating case studies into graduate teaching assistant training to improve instruction in biology laboratory courses

“…Research-based literature in this area cautioned us against short-term GTA training programs (3,26,27). However, the reality of academic life is that sometimes long-term training programs in the specific area of teaching are not possible for a number of reasons (3,28,29), and this is where short term-training programs, even though not ideal, can be beneficial for GTA preparation (29,30,31). Moving forward, we would certainly advocate for use of these case studies in the context of an ongoing semester-long GTA training program.…”