An official website of the United States government
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
This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Fusion of COPUS and DEI Tools for Equitable STEM Classroom Engagement
This research paper investigates how classroom observation tools can be effectively combined to promote engagement in STEM education. Specifically, it explores the integration of the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) and a culturally responsive Classroom Observation Instrument (COI) to evaluate and improve teaching practices. COPUS, developed by Smith et al. [21], captures instructional dynamics and student-faculty interactions, while the Classroom Observation Instrument COI, created by Dr. Jennifer G. Cromley and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Developing Equity-Minded Engineering Practitioners (DEEP) research team [6], focuses on observing and assessing culturally responsive-related instructional practices. At Morgan State University (MSU), a Historically Black University (HBCU), coders formally trained by the UIUC DEEP team used both tools to analyze classroom recordings of faculty who had undergone professional development in engaging pedagogy. Findings indicate measurable improvements and balanced engagement in the classroom. This fusion of COPUS and COI tools offers a replicable framework for enhancing inclusive STEM instruction and cultivating more equitable learning environments.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2308531
- PAR ID:
- 10629848
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- STEM education COPUS culturally responsive engaging pedagogy classroom observations
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 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
-
Structured classroom observation protocols provide instructors with data about their teaching practices, but instructors may not meaningfully engage with those data without guidance. To facilitate instructor reflection, educational developers from the Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) and educational researchers from STEM departments across three campuses collaborated to design and implement a novel faculty professional development program that would promote reflection on teaching using instructors’ Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS; Smith et al., 2013) data—a program we call data-informed professional development (DIPD). The program involved faculty completion of/participation in a teaching reflection, structured classroom observations from two course sessions, at least one meeting with CTL staff, an exit interview, and an opportunity to update their original teaching reflection. Through qualitatively coding the post-DIPD exit interviews, we found that instructors primarily reflected on their COPUS data with a desire to increase student engagement. Instructors also described being more open to making small changes to their courses, feeling supported to make changes to their teaching, and feeling that there was an important element of community-building in the DIPD program. And finally, instructors described how the DIPD experience was beneficial for promoting reflection on teaching practices, but the meeting portion was critical–providing data from the structured observations alone was not sufficient for a variety of reasons. Our study can serve as a teaching professional development model for how educational developers and education researchers can collaborate to prompt instructors to critically reflect on their teaching practices using structured observation protocols.more » « less
-
“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
-
The HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) ATE (Advanced Technological Education) Hub 2 is a three-year collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that continues the partnership between two successful programs and involves a third partner in piloting professional development that draws upon findings from the initial program. The goal of HSI ATE Hub 2 is to improve outcomes for Latinx students in technician education programs through design, development, pilot delivery, and dissemination of a 3-tier professional development (PD) model for culturally responsive technician education at 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The project seeks to do this by developing the awareness and ability of faculty to appreciate, engage, and affirm the unique cultural identities of the students in their classes and use this connection to deepen students’ belonging and emerging identities as STEM learners and future STEM technicians. This paper shares the research foundations shaping this approach and the methods by which faculty professional development is being provided to develop this important and sensitive instructional capability in participating faculty. The tiered PD model features a scaffolded series of reflective and activity-oriented modules to incrementally enrich the instructional practices and mindset of HSI STEM educators and strengthen their repertoire of strategies for engaging culturally diverse students. Scaffolding that translates culturally responsive theory to practice spans each of the four distinct topic modules in each tier. Each topic module in a tier then scaffolds to a more advanced topic module in the next tier. Tier 1, Bienvenidos, welcomes HSI STEM educators who recognize the need to better serve their Latinx students, and want guidance for small practical activities to try with their students. Tier 2, Transformation through Action, immerses HSI STEM educators in additional activities that bring culturally responsive practices into their technician training while building capacity to collect evidence about impacts and outcomes for students. Tier 3, Engaging Community, strengthens leadership as HSI STEM educators disseminate results from activities completed in Tiers 1 and 2 at conferences that attract technician educators. Sharing the evidence-based practices and their outcomes contributes to achieving broader impacts in the Advanced Technological Education or ATE Community of NSF grantees. Westchester Community College (WCC), the first 2-year HSI in the State University of New York (SUNY) 64 campus system, is piloting the 3-tier PD model using virtual learning methods mastered through previous NSF ATE work and the COVID-19 context. During the pilot, over 20 WCC technician educators in three cohorts will develop leadership skills and practice culturally responsive methods. The pilot will build capacity within WCC STEM technician programs to better support the diversity of students, industry demand for a diverse workforce, and WCC’s capacity for future development of technician education programs. This first paper in a three part series describes the program goals and objectives, the 3-Tier PD model, and reports initial results for Cohort A’s engagement in the first three modules of Tier 1.more » « less
