Advancing the Culture of Teaching in STEM through Diffusion of Strength-Based Reflexivity

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving the culture of teaching in STEM departments within institutions of higher education and to better support the needs of an increasingly diverse student population in STEM. The project aims to promote a collaborative and inclusive teaching culture within STEM departments by providing a two-year professional development experience for STEM faculty who hold a variety of instructional roles (e.g. teaching faculty, research faculty, adjunct faculty, and graduate teaching assistants). The professional development model will support instructors' adoption of effective instructional techniques that meet the changing needs of today's students. This model, called TRIOS, is Time-sensitive, Reciprocal, Inclusive, Operative, and Strengths-based. This project will also study the significance of the professional development model to impact STEM department cultures and, as an outcome, will produce a handbook for change leaders in other STEM departments. The goal of this project is to shift the teaching culture within STEM departments from isolationist, weed-out, and stagnant to collaborative, inclusive, and open to growth. Using the TRIOS model, which is grounded in strength-based reflexivity, the project plans to support approximately fifty instructors over five years at a single institution to reflect and modify their teaching to be more aligned with evidence-based and inclusive practices in instruction. The professional development model, as well as the assessment of its outcomes, are framed by three central theories: self-determination, positive psychology, and diffusion of innovation. As part of the outcomes assessment and guided by an Advisory Board, the project plans to (a) generate six departmental case studies embedded in the synthesized theoretical framework, (b) produce a handbook for stakeholders in STEM departments who seek to advance teaching culture in their own contexts, and (c) develop and disseminate an empirically- and theoretically-based model for promoting collaborative, inclusive, and growth teaching cultures in STEM departments. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.