Dissemination within and between

Institutions

Faculty Need to Change Workshops Team

StructureFaculty

Recognition and Rewards

AbstractFaculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST II) tests a model for faculty professional development that facilitates implementation of effective teaching practices, and creates institutional infrastructures that support and sustain efforts to improve student learning. Forty teams of faculty from science departments in colleges and universities throughout the nation participated in a series of workshops at biological field stations that focused on how students learn and how to improve student learning. Teams selected courses to reform, developed student learning goals and assessments, and learned active, inquiry-based instructional designs/techniques that enabled students to achieve their goals. Faculty returned to their departments and implemented changes in their own courses, and used a variety of approaches to diffuse the innovations to other colleagues. At the course-level of change (n=150 courses), self-report data from faculty indicate increased use of inquiry-based instruction and formative assessments during class meetings and laboratories. At the team-level of change, FIRST II teams gave workshops and seminars in their departments and colleges, wrote grant proposals for educational innovations, and extended changes from courses to curricula.

Faculty Teams Join FIRST

FIRST II: A Model for Facilitating Innovation in Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Science

How are they learning?

Diane Ebert-May1, Janet Hodder2, Debra Linton3, Tammy Long1, Everett Weber1

1Michigan State University, 2University of Oregon, 3Cuyahoga Community College

How are they learning?

Workshops lead to reformA total of 376 courses are undergoing reform. Class sizes range from less than 15 to greater than 200 students.

Dissemination within and between institutions

Faculty within institutions are catalysts for change. Participants present seminars within their institutions and at regional and national meetings.

Team structure supports reform

Field stations provide structure that establishes communities to facilitate reform. Field stations encourage and stimulate innovation.

Faculty recognition and rewards

Success rate for grants is 67% with grants ranging from <$10,000 to more than $1 million.

Table 1. Primary Reasons for Participating (2002 FIRST survey, n=145).

Reason %

Improve my teaching/courses 43

Learn new techniques / get new ideas 30

Improve student learning / critical thinking 21

Build connections/support groups with peers 20

Increase use of inquiry in my classes 19

…Improve assessment 7

Figure 1. Participants by Years Teaching Experience (2002 FIRST survey, n=145).

Table 2. Sizes of Courses Being Reformed (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).# Students # of Courses % Reformed

<15 90 62.216-30 164 68.731-60 67 76.1

61-100 25 80.0

100-200 24 83.3

>200 6 83.3# Students in Reformed Courses per Year: >16,000

Table 3. Reforms in Courses (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).Techniques Implemented or Increased in Usage

# of Faculty Using

In-class Group Activities 47Cooperative Groups 41Inquiry-based Labs 32Concept Maps 28Minute Papers 26Student Discussions 22Think/Pair/Share 21Student Presentations 21Pre/Post-Testing 19Experimental Design/Analysis 16Conceptual Questions 16Less Lecture 14Student Research 11

Figure 3. FIRST II Structure.

Table 5. Support Participants Received from Team (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).

Category # of ParticipantsInformal discussions 42Nothing 26Regular meetings 22Infrequent meetings 14Collaborate on courses 11Visit each other’s classes 8E-mail 7Meet with other IT teams 3

Table 4. Support Participants Received from Field Station Team (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).

Category # of ParticipantsFeedback on what I am doing 23Facilitate information sharing between teams 18

Updates on resources and literature 17Training in assessment and inquiry-based teaching 17

Encouragement / Motivation 15Organize workshops 9Visit our schools / classrooms 8Collaborate on research 7Provide activities I can use in my class 2

Figure 4. Seminars Presented by Participants (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).

Figure 5. Grant Proposals Submitted by Participants (2004 FIRST survey, n=109).

Pending Research Questions:

FIRST Hypothesis

•Does student learning increase in response to reformed teaching practice?

Test: Correlate student learning with reformed teaching practice

Method: Diagnostic questions sets (developed with SDSU, CU, MSU) and correlated with RTOP

• Do faculty self-report data about teaching reforms correlate with direct observation?

Test: Correlate self report data with direct observation

Method: Video taping of faculty in classes (n~80 x 4) using Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol(RTOP)

Institutional Support

and Facilitation

Need to Change

Learning and

Implementing New Practices

Facilitating the Learning and

Implementation of New Practices

Policy

Roling and Wagemakers (1998)

Learn and Test New Practices

Students don’t

understand

Why?

Social Learning and

Support

Theoretical Basis of FIRST

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

<$10,000 $10,000 -$100,000

$100,001 -$1 million

>$1million

Grant Request Amount

FundedNot FundedPending

# of

Pro

posa

ls

Sustainable Agriculture Model

Figure 2. Institution Type (2002 FIRST survey, n=145).