Transforming Higher Education - The overarching goal of this project is to advance educational practices by creating, aligning and sustaining effective evaluation strategies that promote the use of evidence-based instructional strategies. We simultaneously seek to advance understanding of the institutional change process by studying the adoption and integration of new approaches to evaluating teaching.
Much of the recent work of STEM education researchers and change agents has focused on promoting the widespread use of evidence-based educational practices (NASEM 2012, and 2018). This includes major initiatives from agencies such as the National Science Foundation (National Science Foundation, 2013) and the Association of American Universities. Increasing the use of evidence-based educational practices (EBEPs) in STEM undergraduate education requires explicit support and reward for faculty who embrace these practices. Indeed, the absence of such a reward system is a commonly-cited barrier to faculty adoption of EBEPs (Fairweather, 2008). In turn, recognizing and supporting faculty requires valid and reliable ways to evaluate teaching practices, a process that few universities employ.
Change theory showing the link between evaluation of teaching and the widespread use of evidence-based educational practices (EBEPs). This project is operating at the intervention stage.
Evaluation of teaching has long relied primarily on student surveys about their experiences; a process commonly known as student evaluation of teaching (Seldin, 1998). Promotion, tenure, and merit processes have been structured around this single method of evaluating teaching while faculty research is evaluated through much broader and more thorough means (e.g., research portfolios, external peer review). These evaluation and reward practices are part of an interconnected cultural web that defines norms, sets standards, and guides practices within universities (Ann E Austin, 2011). Therefore, achieving widespread change -- in this case, in the way teaching is evaluated -- requires efforts to transform university culture at the department, college and campus levels.
In this project, three of the PIs (Finkelstein, Greenhoot, Weaver) actively lead this cultural change on their own university campuses, working toward the development, adoption and sustainable use of new approaches to evaluating teaching. A fourth PI (Austin) studies the process of transformation within and across the three campuses, creating case studies examining what approaches work most effectively under what circumstances. An external evaluator (Graham) serves to provide formative and summative feedback on the project development.
Below are the leads for each of the campus efforts, cross institutional studies and evaluation. More about the teams on each campus can be found on the specific campus-specific sites.
Ann Austin [Director of cross institutional studies, MSU]
Ann E. Austin is associate dean for research and professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University, where she has twice been selected to hold the Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair. Dr. Austin’s research concerns faculty careers and professional development, organizational change in higher education, teaching and learning in higher education, doctoral education, reform in STEM education, the academic workplace, equity and inclusion in academe and higher education in the international context.
Noah Finkelstein [Director, CU Boulder effort]
Noah Finkelstein is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, is a PI in the Physics Education Research (PER) group, and a co-director of CU’s Center for STEM Learning. Noah conducts research on the conditions that support students’ interests and abilities in physics and how educational transformations get taken up, spread, and sustained.
Mark Graham [Director of evaluation]
Mark Graham, is a Research Scientist and is the Director of the STEM Program Evaluation and Research Lab (STEM PERL) at Yale University. These efforts are part of a national effort to transform undergraduate science teaching and student learning. He is principal investigator for a National Science Foundation supported investigation of the Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching’s impact on faculty teaching and student achievement. In addition, Dr. Graham provides program evaluation expertise to other NSF and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) principal investigators on how to evaluate the success of a program or initiative.
Andrea Follmer Greenhoot [Director, KU effort]
Andrea Follmer Greenhoot (“Dea”) is Professor of Psychology, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Gautt Teaching Scholar at the University of Kansas. Her research in psychology is on cognitive development and memory. Her teaching center work explores how we can transform university students’ learning experiences to be both grounded in cognitive and developmental science and mindful of the challenges they face in the future. Dea is also Associate Director of the Bay View Alliance, a consortium of research universities studying strategies to promote widespread faculty adoption of evidence-based teaching practices.
Gabriela Weaver [Director, UMass-Amherst effort]
Special Assistant to the Provost for Educational Initiatives and Professor of Chemistry, University of Mass Amherst. From 2014-2018, Weaver served as associate provost and director for the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development. The Center supports the professional development of faculty across all career stages and disciplines with a wide range of programs and resources focused on teaching, mentoring, scholarly writing, tenure preparation, leadership, and work/life balance. In collaboration with the Graduate School, the center also provides teaching development support for graduate students.