Improving Student Success in STEM by Improving Faculty Teaching

University Enterprises Corporation At Csusb, San Bernardino CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is an institutional transformation project at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), a comprehensive Hispanic Serving Institution with a diverse student body of nearly 21,000 students most of whom are first generation college students. A major goal of this transformation project is to improve undergraduate student retention in the STEM disciplines by improving student learning. The focus of the project team is to use sustained professional development in instructional methods for STEM faculty, including associated incentives, to improve the learning environment. The objectives of the project are to: increase the knowledge, understanding, and effective use of inclusive, evidence-based teaching practices and course-design among new and experienced, part-time and full-time faculty; increase the ability of department chairs to effectively support and evaluate faculty in the area of teaching; and build the capacity and sustainability for offering faculty professional development that is responsive to our student population, student learning and assessment data, faculty needs and interest, and the institution's evolving context. The strategy for reaching this goal is to implement and sustain a community of practice model of professional development that will encompass four different types of faculty learning communities: a new faculty orientation program; STEM institutes for part- and full-time faculty members; department chair learning communities; and a facilitators' learning community. A special project focus is understanding the specific factors that contribute to the attrition of both female and underrepresented minority students and the role evidence-based teaching practices can play in mitigating these factors. The fifth year of the project will focus on dissemination. In collaboration with the California State University Chancellor's Office, the PI team will create professional learning communities at all CSU campuses to help others adapt and adopt their change model. What is learned from this project has the potential to help STEM programs at other institutions. The PI team will share information beginning in the third year of the project about how to take a coherent approach to supporting, developing, and evaluating the STEM faculty for the ultimate benefit of the students. The PI team's design of the four different types of faculty learning communities draw on Kezar's (2013) theory of change and Wenger's (2000) community of practice model for professional learning. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding specific factors that contribute to attrition of female and underrepresented minority students in the STEM fields, such as cultural isolation, cultural incongruence, lack of critical mass, inadequate support systems (Cole & Espinoza, 2008; Fries-Britt, Younger & Hall, 2010; Lagesen, 2007; Maton, Pollard, McDougall Weise & Hrabowski, 2012; Museus & Liverman, 2010; Villareal, Cabrera & Friedrich, 2012); lack of self-efficacy (Baber, Pifer, Colbeck, & Furman, 2010; Byars-Winston, Estrada, & Howard, 2008; Cole & Espinoza, 2008); "chilly" classroom climates, and perceived bias among faculty (Atkinson, 2012; Cole et al, 2008; Diekman et al, 2010), and the role evidence-based teaching practices can play in mitigating these factors.