Transforming College Teaching: Statewide Implementation of the Faculty Learning Program to Improve STEM Undergraduate Teaching and Learning

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Transforming College Teaching project is significant because it will improve student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate courses in California through statewide implementation of a professional learning program that supports faculty in transforming college-level teaching. The program deepens faculty members' understanding of how learning happens and how to support learning, including how to facilitate and design lecture courses to be more active and to promote student learning of STEM concepts. In this project, STEM faculty from 2- and 4-year institutions will participate in learning communities that improve how they teach. They will build relationships and understanding of each others' teaching contexts, thus aligning the ways in which STEM courses are taught across California's three-tiered, post-secondary education system, the largest public higher education system in the nation. Students transferring from 2-year into 4-year institutions will be prepared as learners to excel across STEM curricula as a result of this alignment, leading to improved success and retention in STEM. The goals of the Transforming College Teaching project, which implements the recently developed Faculty Learning Program (FLP), are to: (1) cultivate institutional capacity to provide support for STEM faculty to improve their teaching practice through development and implementation; (2) develop community and complementary instructional practices between STEM faculty in 2- and 4-year institutions across California; and (3) examine the impact of changed teaching practice on student engagement and achievement in STEM. In year 1, nine California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) institutions have committed to implement elements of the FLP. Additional institutions will implement this program in years 2 and 3, recruiting STEM faculty from their respective institutions and from local community colleges that have high transfer rates into their institutions. These colleges and universities have varying levels of capacity for faculty development in STEM teaching, similar to other institutions nationally; to address this, three capacity-building models for adopting FLP are included in the design of the project. The project will provide faculty developers, and prepare STEM faculty, with the knowledge and tools to increase institutional capacity to support STEM faculty development. By providing access to a research-based, tested, and documented faculty professional learning program for improving teaching practice, this project can be adopted by post-secondary education systems and institutions across the country.