| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 4, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 4, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1726625 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Mindy Capaldi
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $2,299,267.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $2,299,267.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
21 N PARK ST STE 6301 MADISON WI US 53715-1218 (608)262-3822 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
21 N Park St., Ste. 6401 Madison WI US 53715-1218 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) contributes to long-term improvement in STEM undergraduate education through the purposeful development of the future STEM faculty. The strategic leverage point by which CIRTL shapes the future national STEM faculty is graduate and postdoctoral preparation in teaching and learning. CIRTL provides systematic and focused professional development to build future faculty expertise in evidence-based teaching. Three core ideas - teaching-as-research, learning communities, and learning through diversity - and a detailed set of associated learning outcomes provide the conceptual framework for all CIRTL activities. Research has established the efficacy of this approach. In particular, there is empirical evidence of the positive long-term impact of teaching professional development based on these ideas. In Summer 2016 the CIRTL Network expanded to more than 40 research universities in the United States - a doubling of the earlier number of CIRTL institutions. This project is comprised of an integrated portfolio of initiatives for increased impact and widespread deployment of future faculty professional development in teaching. The initiatives work in two strategic directions:
1. increase the number of future faculty participating at each CIRTL Network university;
2. extend CIRTL opportunities to future faculty beyond the CIRTL Network.
To increase the number of future faculty participants within the CIRTL Network, CIRTL will develop and evaluate a set of new cohort-based learning communities: i) disciplinary learning communities in chemistry, engineering, life sciences and statistics; ii) teaching assistant learning communities; and iii) postdoctoral learning communities. These will operate both locally and online. To extend opportunities to future faculty beyond the CIRTL Network, CIRTL will develop and evaluate: i) an online NSF Graduate Research Fellow learning community; and ii) partnerships in future faculty development with eight professional societies. CIRTL will also build new bridges for its alumni to contribute to the CIRTL mission by developing and evaluating a CIRTL Alumni Network. These new initiatives have the long-term goal of preparing more than 8,000 STEM future faculty annually in the CIRTL Network, and to extend opportunities to many more beyond the Network.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Broader Impact: The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) seeks to enhance excellence in STEM undergraduate education through development of a national faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices for diverse learners.The major goals of this project were to scale up the national impact of CIRTL by:
- Increasing the number of future faculty (graduate students and post-docs) participating at each of 43 CIRTL Network universities;
- Extend CIRTL opportunities to future faculty beyond the CIRTL Network.
Intellectual Merit: The outcomes of the 8 components of this project are:
- EPIC, Exploring Practices in the Classroom: Findings show that participating Teaching Assistants reported greater readiness to teach across five measured skill sets: leading course material, communicating with students, pursuing professional development, diversity and inclusion, feedback and reflection. This finding held across all cohorts & implementation sites.
- Disciplinary Learning Communities: Needs assessment instrument intended to help university departments to probe graduate students' interest in teaching professional development, and to assess how they value and perceive their needs for teaching skills. Such data are useful in setting department priorities and in communicating future faculty needs to senior administrators.
- Post-doctoral Teaching Development: Two postdoc program models were tested and refined; a weekend-long "boot camp" and a summer institute meeting half days for a week.
- Professional Societies: A facilitation manual in progress is expected to include what teaching development societies are offering: a landscape of examples; templates and toolkits for teaching development offerings that could be offered in partnership with societies; marketing materials for partnering on teaching development; annotated list of CIRTL resources that could support partnership.
- Graduate Research Fellow Learning Community: Over 30% of initially invited GRFs have created an account and viewed some content; modules and MOOCs, and the faculty office hours forum are the most popular resources; GRFs would like to interact more with each other, both asynchronously and in real time.
- CIRTL Alumni Network: 450 members; For themselves, alumni wish to gain new teaching ideas from other alumni and from CIRTL programming. They seek to engage as teacher-scholars and connect to peers who are also interested in teaching. For giving back, of greatest interest is serving as a resource on teaching in their own discipline; many would like to work with current participants in roles such as informal mentoring, offering job search advice, or serving on online programs or panels, and some are interested in helping to mentor Teaching-as-Research projects.
CIRTL Resource Archive: The Program Evaluation Resource Collection includes items to assist CIRTL campus programs with their in-house evaluation. Common "core" materials are aligned to CIRTL outcomes and can be used as a starting point, e.g., survey items, interview protocols, and a rubric for evaluating teaching-as-research (TAR) projects. The Cross-Network Programming Archive hosts instructional materials used in synchronous online programs offered by the CIRTL Cross-Network LC. The items include syllabi, slides, readings, handouts, and activities, on topics related to teaching, diversity and inclusion, assessment, and intercultural understanding for instructors from outside the US. Additional items are added each term as new cross-Network programs are introduced. Ethical Dilemmas in the College Classroom: A Casebook for Inclusive Teaching includes seven fictional cases around diversity in education, and resources to support leaders in using the cases in workshops and learning communities. The cases are framed in terms of 'ethics in education,' which appeals to many educators and avoids politicized preconceptions. These short, well-tested, single-session activities do not require pre-reading or assume particular prior knowledge or personal identity work. The casebook provides guidance to facilitators about the thinking behind the cases, without prescribing how they should be used.
- Evaluation Mapping: CIRTL Network members who took part in mapping their own programs found participating to be beneficial in identifying needs and opportunities at key points of their program, focusing their evaluation goals, and shifting evaluation practices for established programs from short-term feedback to mid- and long-term outcomes. Mapping helped them "articulate what they wanted to do and why." They developed evaluative mindsets, shared language and a community of practice for discussing program evaluation. Several began or enhanced evaluation activities; others used their maps as a communication tool or for mission screening as they considered adding or improving programs. Through conversation, they came to understand differences in local evaluation purposes, such as documenting short-term outcomes, iteratively improving programs to achieve mid- and longer-term outcomes, and demonstrating value to administrators, and cross-Network purposes such as common measures across programs. Campus leaders found the analysis and collaboration process supportive and rewarding.
Last Modified: 12/01/2022
Modified by: Katherine A Barnicle
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