New Faculty Workshop for TYC Physics Faculty

American Association Of Physics Teachers, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Two-year colleges play a significant role in the United States' higher education system, and approximately 37% of students in higher education attend a two-year college. A recent American Institute of Physics (AIP) report found that 54% of two-year colleges have only one full-time physics professor. As a consequence, many new physics faculty in two-year colleges do not receive mentoring from a more senior physicist at their institution. Over 60% of two-year physics instructors indicate that they correspond with colleagues about teaching less than once a week. While traditional instruction provides discipline-based content, it frequently does not engage students in the learning process. Substantial efforts have been made to develop research-based active engagement instructional strategies in physics. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) recently administered a survey on the use of these strategies in higher education. While two-year colleges had the highest response rate at 54%, the results showed that traditional lecture occurred in over 60% of the classes the majority of the time and that 43% of the respondents were not using a single innovative strategy listed on the survey. Without having any knowledge of researched-based instructional strategies in physics and no mentor or colleague to discuss teaching with, it is not surprising that the majority of two-year college physics instructors do not use any of these proven strategies. This project consists of an intensive educational experience to enhance STEM student learning through developing new physics faculty at two-year colleges. The New Faculty Workshop for TYC Physics Faculty consists of 18 months of mentoring and developing physics faculty who are in their first five years of teaching. This experience includes online discussions of seminal papers in physics education research, a four-day intensive conference, 15 months of mentoring for the participants, and a two-day commencement conference held in tandem with an American Association of Physics Teachers national summer meeting. The project impacts 30 new instructors, changing the way these instructors interact with students over the course of their careers. By scheduling the follow-up sessions in conjunction with the AAPT national meeting, the project is able to introduce participants to the professional development opportunities available to them through this professional organization. The intellectual merit includes: Reaching a significant number of new physics instructors to give them a working knowledge of recent developments in physics pedagogy. Presenting the material in an active engagement environment that models the type of classroom management that they will implement. Mentoring the participants to provide them the support they need to make significant change in their program. The broader impacts include: A significant impact on the manner in which students are taught at the participants' institutions. Students from participants' institutions who are better prepared in the content of the material covered in the physics courses at these institutions. Students who have developed skill sets that are valued by employers due to the experience of being taught physics using strategies known to promote a deeper understanding of physics content.