BU CIRTL Boston University CIRTL Evaluation Update Feb 20, 2014 Bennett Goldberg, co-leader, Physics Janelle Heineke, co-leader, Operations Management Kathryn Spilios, Biology Manher Jariwala, Physics

BU CIRTL BU Preparing Future Faculty The status of preparing future faculty in STEM at BU: – ~250 PhDs per year in STEM; ~15-20% CIRTL Fellows-to-Practitioners – Biology, Physics, Chem, BME have growing programs – Engineering moving to model of teaching required of PhD Our Focus – On Departments so our biggest challenge: – College, Department and Faculty culture toward teaching is secondary – Excellence in teaching/learning is not seen as a transferrable skill and core competency to building knowledge, applicable to all careers BU CIRTL Leadership Group – Chair - Associate Provost for Graduate Education – Faculty, Assistant Deans, DGSs, Grad student reps 2

BU CIRTL Evaluation plan at BU-CIRTL 1.Baseline and annual measurement of training and experience in teaching for all STEM PhDs and postdocs 2.Faithfully execute CIRTL-wide evaluations based on CIRTL learning goals, including fall roll-out of locally facilitated CIRTL MOOC 3.Develop social network analysis tools for local learning communities 4.Continue to measure CIRTL-fellow training courses qualitatively

BU CIRTL Baseline and annual training in teaching for all STEM PhDs and postdocs BU-CIRLT Steering committee request to enable change in colleges and departments Changes the discussion from what we believe to what the students need and say – data is king Reports for campuses, colleges, departments – cuts on data and regression analysis for deans, associate deans of grad education, chairs and directors of grad Presentation in college and department faculty meetings

BU CIRTL Outcomes, Data Speaks – Training in teaching for STEM PhDs 77% of graduate students in GRS and ENG teach at Boston University yet 73% receive less than 5 hours of training. In GRS, 60-70% received too little or no training in STEM pedagogy and 70% or more feel unprepared to teach GRS STEM PhDs wish they had more training in teaching whether they were aspiring for non-academic (77%) or academic (67%) career paths. Students perceive support for their desire for training in teaching from the faculty and administrators in their departments.

BU CIRTL 1300 STEM PhDs and postdocs grad students responded from 47 STEM disciplines 50 % response rate, essentially uniform across departments and colleges and demographics 77% in Engineering and Arts and Science have or are in teaching experiences

BU CIRTL 73% receive 5 hours or less of training Training from dept or college-wide programs, some from faculty mentoring

BU CIRTL Perception of content of training

BU CIRTL Perception of competency in teaching 70% or more of participants felt unprepared for STEM pedagogy tasks, while about 50% felt prepared for classroom management, running a lab or using a chalk board

BU CIRTL “I wish I had more training in teaching” Both non-academic (77%) and academic (67%) career path PhDs wish they had more training in teaching Students perceive (2.8 mean on 4-point scale) that their faculty are supportive of more professional development in teaching

BU CIRTL Update on training - Biology Full semester seminar (BI697) – 20 students per year – Focus on pedagogy – CIRTL core ideas 2 nd semester course this year – Advanced instruction and practice – CIRTL scholars and TAR Discussion of incorporating LAs and TAR – Under direction of TF or faculty CIRTL scholars

BU CIRTL Recent quotes from post-seminar survey “before the class, I was confident in my ability to teach, but hadn’t formulated any specific techniques or approaches. This class helped me to actually thing about and plan my teaching style.” “I think it was helpful in exploring the different possibilities in teaching to encompass different learning styles” “I thought I would feel comfortable with teaching since I’ve done it before when I was an undergraduate. However, this class made me thing more about what I should/could do to make student understanding better and how I can make the class more interactive”

BU CIRTL Evaluation plan at BU-CIRTL 1.Baseline and annual measurement of training and experience in teaching for all STEM PhDs and postdocs 2.Faithfully execute CIRTL-wide evaluations based on CIRTL learning goals, including fall roll-out of locally facilitated CIRTL MOOC 3.Develop social network analysis tools for local learning communities 4.Continue to measure CIRTL-fellow training courses qualitatively

BU CIRTL