Andrea Beach

Promoting instructional change via co-teaching

Physics Education Research (PER) has made significant progress in developing effective instructional strategies, but disseminating the background knowledge and strategies to other faculty has proven difficult. Co-teaching is a promising and cost-effective alternative to traditional professional development which may be applicable in particular situations. We discuss the theoretical background of co-teaching and describe our initial experience with it. A new instructor (Famiano) co-taught an introductory calculus-based physics course with an instructor experienced in PER-based reforms (Henderson). The pair taught within the course structure typically used by Henderson and met regularly to discuss instructional decisions. An outsider (Beach) conducted separate interviews with each instructor and observed several class sessions. Classroom observations show an immediate use of PER-based instructional practices by the new instructor. Interviews show a significant shift in the new instructor’s beliefs about tea...

Facilitating Change in Undergraduate STEM Education

Change • November/December 2012 Andrea L. Beach (andrea.beach@wmich.edu) is director of faculty development and an associate professor of higher education leadership at Western Michigan University (WMU). She is a co-author of Creating the Future of Faculty Development: Learning from the Past, Understanding the Present and is primary investigator on a ten-year follow-up of the research that informed that book. Charles Henderson (charles.henderson@wmich.edu) is an associate professor at WMU, with a joint appointment in the physics department and the WMU Mallinson Institute for Science Education. In 2010, he was a Fulbright Scholar with the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is currently the senior editor for the journal Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research and a member of the National Research Council Committee on Undergraduate Physics Education Research and Implementation. Noah Finkelstein (finkelsn@colorado.edu) is a professor of physics at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a director of the Physics Education Research (PER) group and of the university’s Center for STEM Learning. He serves on many national boards, is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and has been named a Presidential Teaching Scholar for the University of Colorado system. Undergraduate STEM Education

Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM: Initial results from an interdisciplinary literature review

Although decades of research have identified effective instructional practices for improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, these practices are not widely implemented. Scholars in three fields are interested in promoting these practices and have engaged in research on pedagogical change: Disciplinary‐based STEM Education Researchers, Faculty Development Researchers, and Higher Education Researchers. There is little interaction between the fields and efforts in all areas have met with only modest success. In this paper we present an initial examination of 130 randomly chosen articles from a set of 295 we identified as addressing efforts to promote change in the instructional practices of STEM faculty. We identify four core change strategies and note that change strategies differ by fields. Articles in all fields frequently do not provide enough evidence to convincingly argue for the success of the change strategy studied and have few connections to theoretical or empiric...

Four Categories of Change Strategies for Transforming Undergraduate Instruction

Although decades of research have identified effective instructional practices for improving student learning in college and university courses, these practices are not widely implemented. Scholars in several distinct fields are interested in promoting these practices and have engaged in research on pedagogical change. This chapter presents the initial results of a comprehensive literature review. The authors undertook an examination of 130 randomly chosen journal articles from a set of 295 that were identified as addressing change in the instructional practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Based on this literature review, four core categories of strategies for change were identified: disseminating curriculum and pedagogy, developing reflective teachers, developing policy, and developing shared visions. The use of particular types of strategies for change differs by field in important ways and has implications for the success of the effort to bring about a change. Common weaknesses in the body of literature are also identified; these include a lack of connection to other literature on the topic of change and a lack of presented data to support claims of success or failure with respect to the strategies for change.

Improving educational change agents' efficacy in science, engineering, and mathematics education

Although recent decades have seen increasing calls for fundamental change in the teaching of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (SEM), efforts to more broadly propagate proven innovations have met with only modest success despite (i) numerous national reports calling for changes, (ii) considerable funding that has been invested in SEM education improvements, and (iii) the growing body of literature on the superior efficacy of many curricular innovations. This chapter suggests that SEM innovators, while expert in their fields, may need to thoughtfully consider research and literature on change, both within higher education and including broader work on organizational change. From a review of the literature on change in higher education, two particular challenges are identified: goal ambiguity and narrow focus of change initiatives. To address these challenges, the authors offer a conceptual framework for decisions that SEM educational change agents make as they design and implement their change initiatives. Within this framework, they offer options and combinations of options that change agents might consider. Given the breadth and complexity of the literature and challenges of change, SEM educational change agents might consider forming collaborations to which they would contribute their disciplinary expertise in one of the three research communities. They might team with individuals who bring requisite expertise from other research communities or with respect to individual and organizational change. Such partnerships might develop approaches that would concurrently address multiple foci. Collaborations that included expertise in individual and organizational change would also be better prepared to navigate complexities of institutional change.

Diffusion of Educational Innovations via Co‐Teaching

Physics Education Research (PER) is currently facing significant difficulties in disseminating research‐based knowledge and instructional strategies to other faculty. Co‐teaching is a promising and cost‐effective alternative to traditional professional development that may be applicable in many situations. This paper discusses the rationale for co‐teaching and our initial experience with co‐teaching. A new instructor (MF) co‐taught with an instructor experienced in PER‐based reforms (CH). The pair worked within the course structure typically used by the experienced instructor and met regularly to discuss instructional decisions. An outsider (AB) conducted interviews and class observations with each instructor. Classroom observations show an immediate use of PER‐based instructional practices by the new instructor. Interviews show a significant shift in the new instructor’s beliefs about teaching and intentions towards future use of the PER‐based instructional approaches.

Promoting High Quality Teaching Practices in Higher Education: Lessons Learned from the USA

The issue of quality in higher education is an ongoing concern that has received considerable international attention. There are many different metrics that have been proposed, including preparation of faculty, selectivity, graduation rate, placement of graduates and so on in order to measure the quality of an educational institution. In this chapter we do not address the issue and difficulties associated with how to mea- sure the quality of an educational institution. Rather, we start with the premise that important contributors to the quality of an educational institution are the instructional practices used by its faculty. Based on this perspective, we focus on strategies that have been shown to, and can be employed to, improve the instructional practices used in higher education.