“Improving Student Experiences to Increase Student Engagement” (ISE-2) was awarded to Texas A&M University by the National Science Foundation, through EEC-Engineering Diversity Activities. ISE-2 is a faculty development program focused on reducing implicit bias and increasing active learning, with the goals of (a) increasing student engagement, success, and retention, and (b) ultimately seeing greater increases for underrepresented minority (URM), women, and first-generation students. Ten faculty teaching first- and second-year Engineering courses participated in the first cohort of ISE-2 in Summer 2017, which consisted of three workshops and six informal “coffee conversations”. At the conclusion of the workshops, each faculty was tasked with completing a teaching plan for the Fall 2017 semester, to incorporate the strategies and knowledge from ISE-2 into the courses they plan to teach. Focus groups with the ISE-2 faculty were conducted in Fall 2017 to obtain feedback about the faculty development program. Classroom observations were conducted using environmental scans and the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS)1 to assess the classroom climate of faculty in the experimental (ISE-2) and control groups. Student surveys were also administered
to students who were taught by ISE-2 faculty and control group faculty to assess student
engagement and classroom climate. While the project is still ongoing, feedback from faculty regarding ISE-2 have been positive.
more »
« less
Developing Emergent Codes for the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS)
This Research Work-in-progress paper presents a
project that intends to increase student engagement, retention,
and success through the implementation of a faculty development
program focused on implicit bias and active learning. To assess the
extent to which the program resulted in transformative changes in
instructor teaching, the project team conducted classroom
observations using minute-by-minute environmental scans and the
Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM
(COPUS). The project team found that the COPUS could not
capture all the behaviors that needed to be observed to assess the
faculty development project. Thus, 12 emergent COPUS codes
were developed to code the required behaviors. Each code is
defined, examples are provided, and excerpts of classroom
observations with and without the emergent COPUS codes are
examined. The project team thinks the emergent COPUS codes,
generally focused on faculty behaviors related to classroom
climate, will be useful in other classroom observation projects.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1648016
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10167912
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 4
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Bati, Ayse Hilal (Ed.)One of the primary reasons why students leave STEM majors is due to the poor quality of instruction. Teaching practices can be improved through professional development programs; however, several barriers exist. Creating lasting change by overcoming these barriers is the primary objective of the STEM Faculty Institute (STEMFI). STEMFI was designed according to the framework established by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior. To evaluate its effectiveness, the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) tool was used before and after an intensive year-long faculty development program and analyzed using copusprofiles.org , a tool that classifies each COPUS report into one of three instructional styles: didactic, interactive lecture, and student-centered. We report the success of our program in changing faculty teaching behaviors and we categorize them into types of reformers. Then, thematically coded post-participation interviews give us clues into the characteristics of each type of reformer. Our results demonstrate that faculty can significantly improve the student-centeredness of their teaching practices in a relatively short time. We also discuss the implications of faculty attitudes for future professional development efforts.more » « less
-
“Improving Student Experiences to Increase Student Engagement” (ISE-2) was funded by the National Science Foundation, through EEC-Engineering Diversity Activities, at Texas A&M University. The grant activity focuses on a faculty development program for faculty who teach first- and second-year engineering courses. As part of the evaluation plan, classroom observations were conducted by the ISE-2 team to assess the classroom climate and teaching practices of ISE-2 faculty participants and non-participant faculty peers. Since Spring 2017, the team has conducted 78 classroom observations. The ISE-2 evaluation team had expert classroom observers train novice observers. The observer training sessions became the basis of this DIY Classroom Observation Toolkit, which is available for people who are interested in conducting systematic classroom observations but have limited experience with qualitative coding and observational research. The goal of the Toolkit is for these individuals to teach themselves using the Toolkit components: a) an annotated bibliography introducing articles that are helpful to understanding and conducting classroom observations, b) training videos teaching viewers to conduct classroom observations using a protocol, and c) a series of sample classroom videos and validation keys for each of the sample videos. This paper serves as a user manual for the Toolkit, which can be accessed at http://bit.ly/diyclassobtoolkit.more » « less
-
The Improving Student Experiences to Increase Student Engagement (ISE-2) grant was awarded to Texas A&M University by the National Science Foundation, through EEC-Engineering Diversity Activities (Grant No. 1648016) with the goal of increasing student engagement and retention in the College of Engineering. The major component of the intervention was a faculty development program aimed to increase active learning, improve classroom climates, and decrease implicit bias and deficit thinking. Faculty teaching first- and second-year Engineering courses participated in the ISE-2 faculty development program, with the first cohort (n = 10) in Summer 2017 and the second cohort (n = 5) in Summer 2018. This paper describes the content of each of these components of the faculty development program and provides access to a Google drive (still in development at the time of the abstract) with resources for others to use. The faculty development program consisted of three workshops, a series of coffee hour conversations, and two deliverables from the participants (a teaching plan at the conclusion of the summer training and a final reflection a year following the training). Anchoring the program was a framework for teaching in a diverse classroom (Adams & Love, 2009). Workshop 1 (early May) consisted of an overview of the ISE-2 program. During the first workshop, faculty were introduced to social cognitive biases and the behaviors that result from these biases. During this workshop, the ISE-2 team shared findings from a climate study related to the classroom experiences of students at the College of Engineering. Workshop 2 (mid-May) focused on how undergraduate students learn, provided evidence for the effectiveness of active learning strategies, and exposed faculty participants to active learning strategies. Workshop 3 (early August) integrated the material from the first two workshops as faculty participants prepared to apply the material to their own teaching. Prior to each workshop, the faculty participants were provided with pre-workshop readings to familiarize them with some of the content matter. Coffee hour conversations—informal discussions between the participating faculty and the ISE-2 team centered around a teaching topic selected by participants—were conducted on a near-weekly basis between the second and third workshops. Handouts and worksheets were provided at each coffee hour and served to guide the coffee hour discussions. After the last workshop but before the Fall semester, faculty participants created a teaching plan to incorporate what they learned in the ISE-2 program into their own teaching. At the end of the academic year, the faculty participants are tasked with completing a final reflection on how ISE-2 has affected their teaching in the previous academic year. In this paper, we will report the content of each of the three workshops and explain how these workshops are related to the overarching goals of the ISE-2 program. Then, we will discuss how each of the coffee hour conversation topics complement the material covered in the workshops. Lastly, we will explore the role of the teaching plans and final reflections in changing instructional practices for faculty.more » « less
-
Boesdorfer, Sara B. (Ed.)Emerging revelations from education research have underscored strategies which effectively promote student success in undergraduate science courses. This chapter describes a pilot professional development for science educators in higher education aimed at implementing these strategies at two-year Hispanic-serving institutions (2Y-HSIs). Science faculty members from 2Y-HSIs and graduate students at a research university participated jointly in the collaborative professional development activities described herein. The design of this unique program that comingles in-service and pre-service educators was informed by prior research: Enduring change in science education necessitates more than simply informing educators about effective instructional approaches. Following a comprehensive three-day workshop focused on restructuring college science courses via backward design, 2Y-HSI faculty members and graduate student partners worked together over the next year to devise, implement, and assess the impact of interventions intended to promote active learning in classrooms at the 2Y-HSIs. In support of this effort, the graduate students received additional training on how to conduct classroom observations and provide effective feedback to the 2Y-HSI faculty. A community of practice was further cultivated via regular project meetings that enabled participants to share progress, exchange ideas, and solicit advice and guidance. A culminating session, during which the 2Y-HSI faculty member-graduate student teams presented posters of their ongoing work, offered a capstone experience. In this chapter, we invite faculty members and administrators from two-year colleges (2YCs), especially 2Y-HSIs, and research universities to consider the potential of such collaborative professional development efforts.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8659116
