Iterating toward change: Improving student-centered teaching through the STEM faculty institute (STEMFI)

Jeffrey Shipley; Rebecca L Sansom; Haley Mickelsen; Jennifer B Nielson; R Steven Turley; Richard E West; Geoffrey Wright; Bryn St Clair; Jamie L Jensen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0289464

Iterating toward change: Improving student-centered teaching through the STEM faculty institute (STEMFI)

PLoS One. 2023 Aug 17;18(8):e0289464. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289464. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jeffrey Shipley¹, Rebecca L Sansom², Haley Mickelsen¹, Jennifer B Nielson², R Steven Turley³, Richard E West⁴, Geoffrey Wright⁵, Bryn St Clair⁶, Jamie L Jensen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.
⁴ Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.
⁵ Department of Technology and Engineering Studies, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.
⁶ Department of Plant and Wildlife Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States of America.

Abstract

One of the primary reasons why students leave STEM majors is due to the poor quality of instruction. Teaching practices can be improved through professional development programs; however, several barriers exist. Creating lasting change by overcoming these barriers is the primary objective of the STEM Faculty Institute (STEMFI). STEMFI was designed according to the framework established by Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior. To evaluate its effectiveness, the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) tool was used before and after an intensive year-long faculty development program and analyzed using copusprofiles.org, a tool that classifies each COPUS report into one of three instructional styles: didactic, interactive lecture, and student-centered. We report the success of our program in changing faculty teaching behaviors and we categorize them into types of reformers. Then, thematically coded post-participation interviews give us clues into the characteristics of each type of reformer. Our results demonstrate that faculty can significantly improve the student-centeredness of their teaching practices in a relatively short time. We also discuss the implications of faculty attitudes for future professional development efforts.

Copyright: © 2023 Shipley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Academies and Institutes
Faculty*
Humans
Students
Teacher Training*

Grants and funding

"RLS, DMW, BES, REW, and JEJ were supported under grant DUE-1712056 from the US National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."