Assessing faculty professional development in STEM higher education: Sustainability of outcomes.

ABSTRACT: We tested the effectiveness of Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching IV (FIRST), a professional development program for postdoctoral scholars, by conducting a study of program alumni. Faculty professional development programs are critical components of efforts to improve teaching and learning in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, but reliable evidence of the sustained impacts of these programs is lacking. We used a paired design in which we matched a FIRST alumnus employed in a tenure-track position with a non-FIRST faculty member at the same institution. The members of a pair taught courses that were of similar size and level. To determine whether teaching practices of FIRST participants were more learner-centered than those of non-FIRST

SUBMITTER: Derting TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4803486 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature