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This paper reports on post-secondary student and instructor perceptions of teaching practices they see as supporting student success in calculus. The study used a mixed-methods design, combining survey, classroom observation, and interviews. Analysis identified two central clusters of survey response, each aligned with one of two well-specified aspects of self-regulation: coping intention or learning intention. In the coping intention factor, students sought supports to reduce uncertainty, such as having precise instructions and predictable question types on tests. Interview analysis offered insight into ways of coping in situations that students experienced as high-stakes—where the goal of self-regulation was to survive. The learning intention factor included student reports on knowledge of the prerequisite mathematics for the course and assertions that they had responsibility for their learning (rather than assigning it to the instructor). Interviews shed light on how students managed responsibility and motivation in the context of being challenged in mathematics learning. Implications for future research and for instruction attend to the complex dynamics of cognition, affect, motivation, and regulation in the teaching and learning of calculus.

 

In answer to calls for research about professional change, this study addressed the question: What is involved in college science faculty readiness for change in instructional practice? The setting was a professional development experience in oceanography/marine science and paleoclimatology among 32 faculty from 2- and 4-year colleges. Ten of the 32 participated in interviews, and all provided survey responses and documents used in the study. Cycles of inductive analysis generated three example case stories to illustrate a new model for exploring faculty readiness for change in teaching. The model blends results from the health sciences on readiness for behavioral change with research on the personal, external, professional, and consequence domains of a professional change environment. The blended model attends to how an instructor draws on the domains to (a) see an instructional challenge as requiring intentional action to be resolved; (b) notice new significance (for the instructor) in some aspect of instructional practice; (c) feel able to manage instructional stressors/challenges; (d) have commitment to initiate/sustain change; and (e) perceive adequate support in undertaking change. Profiles of instructional readiness for change are represented by composite cases named Lee, Pat, and Chris. In the case of Lee, factor (c) drove change efforts; for Pat, factors (a) and (b) were in the forefront; and for Chris it was factors (d) and (e). The three cases are valuable both as sketches of the blended model in use and as touchstones for future research and development related to postsecondary faculty professional learning. 

This brief report describes the conception, development, and use of a rubric in evaluating the feasibility of a new program. The evaluators searched for a meta-analytic tool to help organize ideas about what data to collect, and why, in order to create a detailed story of feasibility of implementation for the client. The main advantage of using the rubric-based tool is that it lays out key evaluative criteria that are defined as concretely as possible. The article gives a brief overview of the literature on the use of rubrics in evaluation, illustrates the use of a feasibility of implementation rubric as a tool for development, analysis, and reporting, and concludes with recommendations emergent from the use of the rubric.