The CIRTL Network: A Professional Development Network for Future STEM Faculty

CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH, TEACHING, AND LEARNING

A national network of 25 research universities committed to using graduate education to improve STEM learning of all students at American institutions of higher education.

http://www.cirtl.net

The CIRTL Network: A Professional Development Network

for Future STEM Faculty

Dr. Bruce Herbert

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning

http://cirtl.net/




The CIRTL Mission: What Does this Mean for the Nation?

Enhance excellence in undergraduate education through the development of a national faculty committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse learners as part of successful and varied professional careers.




Developing Faculty Teaching Expertise:A Deceptively Simple Question

Often we are asked, “If I met a STEM faculty member, how would I know if they had taken part in CIRTL?” at some point in their development.

Of course, formally this is an evaluation question. But the question is usually asked in a more informal spirit, and so we begin with informal answers.

Dr. Omar Harvey, a former CIRTL participant from Texas A&M

Dr. Robert Mathieu, PIUniversity of Wisconsin

Developing Faculty Teaching Expertise:The Hero’s/Heroine’s Journey as Metaphor

Ordinary World

Special World

Call to Adventure

Refusal of Call

Cross theThreshold

Mentor

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Approach the Cave Ordeal and Reward

Flight

Resurrection

Return with Elixir

Hero

ThresholdGuardian

ShapeshifterTricksterShadow

Herald

Campbell, J. 2008. The Hero with a Thousand Faces.Vogler, C. 1998. The Writer’s Journey. Mythic Structures for Writers.




K12 Teaching Expertise: Early Conceptions of Science Teaching

InstructionalPractices

Student Achievement

Good & Brophy. Looking in Classrooms (10th ed.)

Training: Best Practices

■ Atheoretical; best practices■ Teacher commitments

■ Student learning■Multiple teaching strategies■ Teacher as instructional designer■ Subject matter connections

■ Personal practice theories




K12 Teaching Expertise: Teachers Mediate Classroom Environments

InstructionalPractices

Student Achievement

Content Knowledge & BeliefsPedagogical Knowledge & BeliefsContextual Knowledge & Beliefs

Teacher’sKnowledge &

Beliefs

Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000Bolhuis & Voeten, 2004Windschitl, 2004




K12 Teaching Expertise: Emergence of New Concepts

Teaching in the Fiji Islands as a Peace Corps Volunteer

■ Pedagogical Content Knowledge■ Teaching & learning given subject matter

context■ Schulman, 2000

■ Learning Sciences■How People Learn, 2000

■ Professional Change & Intervention Theories■ Teacher induction■ Luft et al., 2011




K12 Teaching Expertise: Emerging Systems Perspective of Teacher Expertise

Gess-Newsome, J. NARST March 2010.

TeacherPractices

Student Achievement

Learning SciencesPedagogical Content KnowledgeChange & Induction

Teacher’sCharacteristics Experience Preparation

TeacherThinking &

BeliefsTeaching Context Structural Cultural

CurriculumProfessional Development




The CIRTL Network

■ Being national change agents in STEM graduate education around teaching and learning.

■ The core ideas (pillars): ■ teaching-as-research■ learning community■ learning-through-diversity

■ Collaboration with network universities - sharing programs, resources, successes, and initiatives.

Diverse set of research universities committed to:

The CIRTL Networkhttp://www.cirtl.net/




Higher Education Teaching Expertise:CIRTL Learning Outcomes

■ CIRTL Fellow: recognize the role of the CIRTL pillars in effective teaching and learning

■ CIRTL Practitioner: scholarly teaching that builds on the CIRTL pillars to demonstrably improve learning and make the results public

■ CIRTL Scholar: scholarship that advances teaching and learning under peer review

Photo courtesy of University of Illinois-Springfield




Higher Education Teaching Expertise:CIRTL Fellow

■ Participants can identify realistic, well-defined and achievable learning goals.■ Participants can design effective and inclusive instructional materials, courses,

learning environments, and curricula that align learning activities with learning goals and assessments.

■ Participants have been exposed to the literature associated with teaching, learning and assessment.

■ Participants recognize the diversity in their classrooms and the need to address that diversity in teaching plans.

Graduates-through-faculty who are CIRTL Fellows have the knowledge and skills that to be effective teachers, where they are able to implement research-based “best” practices in different learning environments to achieve defined learning goals.

CIRTL Fellows recognize the diversity of their students and seek to meet the needs of diverse learners.




Higher Education Teaching Expertise:CIRTL Practitioners

■ Participants are reading the literature associated with teaching, learning, and assessment and are able to critique it effectively with peers.

■ Participants have started designing and implementing Teaching-as-Research projects for the classroom.

■ Participants can demonstrate how their disciplinary research can inform their teaching.

■ Participants contribute to local professional learning communities associated with teaching and learning.

■ Participants are engaging the diversity of their students in ways that enhance the learning of all.

A CIRTL Practitioner has a level of knowledge and skills that allow them to be scholarly teachers, where they are able to use Teaching-as-Research to improve their practice. Scholarly teaching builds on what others have learned in an ongoing way, seeks evidence of learning, and uses evidence to improve practice.




CIRTL Program:Teaching as Research Projects

TAR Projects from a CIRTL Network Course

Impact of CIRTL Model on Research Group

■ Supporting Traditional Instructional Methods with a Constructivist Approach to Learning: Promoting Conceptual Change and Understanding of Stoichiometry.

■ Analogous Reasoning and Conceptual Model Development of Complex Earth Systems.

■ Can Inquiry-Based Learning activities in an upper-level undergraduate neuroscience course improve student understanding of the nature of neuroscience research?

■ Using Prezi to design interactive, multi-scale, iterative concept maps in an Earth Materials course




Final Thoughts

■ Conceptions of K12 Teaching Expertise■Development and Induction■ Context and Practitioner Research■ CIRTL network is effective in developing

community among small numbers of like-minded individuals at institutions – way to move along the collaboration curve

The authors gratefully acknowledge the the support of National Science Foundation Grant No. 0717768 . Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

The CIRTL Network: A Professional Development Network for Future STEM Faculty

Documents

Transcript of The CIRTL Network: A Professional Development Network for Future STEM Faculty