Presents:
"Faculty Development for STEM Student Success: Strategies
for Generating a Campus Culture of Best Practice”
Presented by Dr. Susan Shadle and Dr. Doug Bullock
Boise State University
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They will be addressed at the end.1
Faculty Development for
STEM Student Success:
Strategies for Generating a
Campus Culture of Best Practice
NSF STEP Webinar
December 2012
Susan Shadle, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Chemistry
Doug Bullock, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Mathematics
S
Goals for this webinar
 Explore several specific strategies for STEM
faculty development
 Consider how STEM faculty development
might best be supported on one’s home
campus
Why focus on faculty?
S Interactions with faculty influence student retention
& persistence
S Effective pedagogy/high impact practices impact
student learning and retention in STEM majors
S On a commuter campus, class time is the primary
opportunity to influence student integration into the
university.
Faculty Change and “ResearchBased Instructional Strategies”
No knowledge
Not tried
Low user
High user
Discontinued
use
S Faculty Change = innovation-decision process
S
Requires
S a shift in how faculty define teaching and identify themselves as teachers.
S a new set of pedagogical skills (“research-based instructional strategies”)
C. Henderson, M. Dancy, M. Niewiadomska-Bugaj, Use of research-based instructional strategies in
introductory physics: Where do faculty leave the innovation-decision process? Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research 8, 020104 (2012).
Questions to
Stimulate Thinking
about STEM Faculty
Development
S
Question 1: How do you support
those who are already engaged?
S Who are the faculty who are relatively far along the
innovation-decision process? (aka “the CHOIR”)
S Do they know each other?
S How are they being fed and recognized?
S How might they be supported to “lead in place”?
S How do you grow the “choir”?
Boise State University
S ~20,000 undergraduates
S Many non-traditional students/”commuter campus”
S ~66% 1st generation college students
S >3600 STEM Majors (fall 2012)
S Arts and Sciences/Engineering
S 49% growth in the last 5 years!
S 385 graduates in 2012
S ~180 full-time &~60 part-time STEM Faculty in 12 departments
Question 1: How do
you support those who
are already engaged?
…“Feeding the Choir”
S
Best Practices in STEM Teaching and
Learning Symposium
S ½ day (January 2011)
S Invited the choir (~50 ppl); ~40 attendees
S Two sets of case studies based on Boise State
faculty
S Pedagogy and assessment
S Speed sharing
Example Faculty Case Study
• Context
• Application & Reflection
• Discussion
• What do you see as the strengths of
this kind of PBL practice?
• How might these ideas/practices be
incorporated into your teaching?
• What kinds of practices do you use
to foster student engagement and
success?
• What do you do to support student
learning of skills like problem solving
and teamwork?
Best Practices in STEM Teaching and
Learning Symposium (II)
S Session part of a larger campus symposium
S Case studies based on Boise State faculty
S Invited everyone
S ~50 attendees
Supporting Emerging Leaders
S Two faculty worked with their department chair to
bring quick pedagogical ideas to department meetings
S Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Leadership institute 
sent new department chair (“choir” member)
S http://www.aacu.org/pkal/events/sli/index.cfm
Question 2: Where/How does
dialogue happen on your campus?
S Are there existing programs or events during which faculty
talk about teaching?
S Are there existing meetings that could be used for dialogue
around teaching?
S Can you/should you create new structures?
STEM Focused Faculty Learning
Communities
Faculty Learning Communities are groups of 8-10 faculty
who meet with a facilitator to engage in exploration of
teaching and learning topics over the course of an
academic year.
2010-2011
STEM faculty
2012-2013
Calculus faculty
http://www.units.muohio.edu/flc/whatis.php
“Active Learning at Lunch”
Regular brown bag lunch series:
S session focused on the experience of an
engineering faculty member who re-took
Calculus I
Question 3: Where can faculty “go”
to get support for best-practice
pedagogy?
S Is there a program or Center for Teaching and Learning? A
faculty committee?
S Is there travel money for faculty development in STEM?
S Can an outside workshop leader be brought in?
Question 3: Where can faculty “go”
to get support for best-practice
pedagogy?
S Is there a program or Center for Teaching and Learning? A
faculty committee?
S Is there travel money for faculty development in STEM?
S Can an outside workshop leader be brought in?
At Boise State 
• CTL consultations & workshops
• CTL Travel Awards
• Outside workshop facilitators
What ideas might you
explore to engage faculty
on your campus?
Q1 How do you support those who are already engaged?
Q2 Where/How does dialogue happen on your campus?
Q3 Where can faculty “go” to get support for best-practice
pedagogy?
S
Successes and Barriers
No knowledge
Not tried
Low user
High user
Discontinued
use
S This work has been building over time… each year we engage
~90-100 STEM faculty (out of ~180 FT/60 PT faculty)
S Helps to have support from deans and department chairs
S There are real limitations
S Non-engagement/dismissal, Other priorities, Limited faculty
time/workload availability
The importance of faculty…
“Faculty members who take risks with their teaching,
experiment with innovative pedagogical approaches, and make
teaching and learning a collaborative activity are more likely to
foster student success.”
Kinzie, J. (2005). Promoting student success: What faculty members can do (Occasional Paper No. 6).
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research