1 / 15

Enhancing Teaching & Developing Leadership: Impact of Cutting Edge PD Program

This professional development program supports faculty in improving content and instruction for undergraduate geoscience education. Through workshops and a supportive website, it fosters a diverse community of geoscience educators and integrates new teaching methods and emerging research topics into the curriculum. The program has shown significant impact, including a shift in focus from what faculty teach to what students learn, the introduction of new teaching methods, increased emphasis on connections between geoscience and humans, and the development of leadership skills and networks.

davidemerson
Download Presentation

Enhancing Teaching & Developing Leadership: Impact of Cutting Edge PD Program

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Enhancing your Teaching and Developing New Leadership: Impact of the On the Cutting Edge Professional Development Program Ellen Iverson, Cathy Manduca, Carleton College; John McLaughlin, Managing for Results, Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary NSF CCLI- 0127141

  2. On the Cutting Edge Program • Improving undergraduate geoscience education through supporting faculty in improving content and instruction • A synergistic, integrated multi-year series of workshops • A website to support workshops and reach the broader geoscience community • An expanding community of geoscience educators with a strong and diverse leadership • Research on what faculty need, how faculty work, the impact of the program serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/

  3. Emerging topics workshops • Move new science content and teaching methods into mainstream • Brings together researchers, educators • 2 per year • Examples: • Geology & Human Health • Biocomplexity • Teaching with Visualizations • Understanding What Students are Learning

  4. Teaching “X” workshops • Explore teaching “X” effectively in the classroom, lab, and field • Teaching Petrology (03) • Teaching Structural Geology (04) • Teaching Hydrogeology (05) • 70-80 faculty/workshop (> 10% of those teaching “X” in the US)

  5. Workshops repeated annually • Designing Effective and Innovative Courses in the Geosciences • Workshop for Early Career Faculty • Preparing for an Academic Career

  6. Websites to support workshops and reach the broader geoscience community

  7. Program Awareness • Question:Have you ever heard of the On the Cutting Edge workshop series for geoscience faculty? • Answer:34% YES aware of program • Random sample of 475 Geoscientists • Email survey • 43% return from email • 90% confidence level • 7% margin of error

  8. Determining the impact • Online survey ~ 50% response rate • 54 interviews with workshop participants • 12 interviews with website users

  9. Four major areas of impact: • Change from “what do I teach” to “what are students learning” • Introduction of new teaching methods into courses • Increased emphasis in course content on emerging geoscience research and connections between geoscience and humans (Emerging theme workshops) • Increased confidence, new skills, and new connections • expand their sphere of influence • take on leadership positions in a wide range of venues (e.g. campus, regional, national, international) and in new professional areas (e.g. geoscience education, teacher preparation).

  10. From “what I teach” to “what students learn” • 38 of 54 (70%) participants described significant shifts in their attitude about the practice of teaching and study of learning. • 14 of 54 (26%) participants talked about how the workshop reaffirmed their existing attitudes and belief about teaching and learning in geoscience.

  11. New teaching methods into courses • 45 of 54 (83%) participants noted biggest impacts was teaching and described specific active learning techniques and activities they incorporated. • Department impact of new teaching methods • Complete curriculum overhaul for majors • Curriculum overhaul for teacher preparation

  12. Emphasis in course content on emerging geoscience research Connections between geoscience and humans • Addition of Geology and Human Health into courses and curriculum • Increased use and attention to the use of visualizations in teaching

  13. Increased confidence, new skills, and new connections • 42 of 54 (78%) participants highlighted outcomes from the workshop that demonstrated an expanded sphere of influence. • Leading regional workshops • Participate and lead cross-discipline curriculum or activities on campus • Pursuit (and many times be awarded) grants related to workshop outcomes • Develop outreach programs for local community education • Develop pre-service or in-service science teacher programs • Present or publish in area of geoscience education

  14. Networking and Role of Trusted Source Previous study* seven of eight faculty we interviewed (87%) identified colleagues as favorite source of information on teaching. Workshop participants: • Identify networking at workshop as key to their learning • Create new networks on their campus or with other colleagues to strengthen their geoscience teaching • Share resources with connections made at workshop *Manduca, C.M., Iverson, E., Fox, S., McMartin, F. Influencing User Behavior through Digital Library Design An Example from the Geosciences D-Lib Magazine, May, 2005.

  15. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/

More Related