Collectively Improving Our Teaching: Attempting Biology Department-wide Professional Development in Scientific Teaching.

ABSTRACT: Many efforts to improve science teaching in higher education focus on a few faculty members at an institution at a time, with limited published evidence on attempts to engage faculty across entire departments. We created a long-term, department-wide collaborative professional development program, Biology Faculty Explorations in Scientific Teaching (Biology FEST). Across 3 years of Biology FEST, 89% of the department's faculty completed a weeklong scientific teaching institute, and 83% of eligible instructors participated in additional semester-long follow-up programs. A semester after institute completion, the majority of Biology FEST alumni reported adding active learning to their courses. These instructor self-reports were corroborated by audio analysis of classroom noise and surveys of

SUBMITTER: Owens MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6007775 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature