Teaching Science in Higher Education: Faculty Professional Development and Barriers to Change

The focus of this research was to better understand the change processes necessary for university science teaching reform to be successful. The professional development processes involved faculty cognitive perceptions of learning, teaching skills, and pedagogical knowledge, as well as faculty culture in teaching science courses. A series of faculty development programs were conducted at nine U.S. locations to explore, develop strategies, and implement changes in science classrooms. A review of research and these professional development experiences provided a base to carry out research activities related to understanding change in science faculty. Faculty participants in the program from 30 institutions were selected to be involved in the study. Ethnographic and case study approaches were used to collect and analyze data. Many faculty members encountered in this study had conceptions of the change process that inhibited successful action. These research efforts provide a predictive model for assisting faculty change and help determine which faculty professional development efforts may be successful in overcoming barriers to change in undergraduate science classrooms.     

Effect of STEM Faculty Engagement in the Math and Science Partnership Program

The article explores the effect of the engagement of university science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty in the Math and Science Partnership program. The findings suggest that K‐12 teachers benefited from the engagement in terms of improved approaches to teaching and learning, increased knowledge of subject matter content, and increased confidence. STEM faculty benefited from new ideas about teaching and learning, insights into research, more knowledge of the K‐12 education system, and a broader understanding of education overall. Student achievement also improved, although direct attribution to faculty involvement is somewhat unclear. Furthermore, in the short run at least, it appears that few benefits extend beyond those faculty who are direct participants, and few systemic changes have been made in institutions of higher education systems.     

Families,experiments, and nature: Learning science through project-based learning

This study brings together the research focused on science education through project-based learning (PBL). This learning project was carried out in a rural learning community and an attempt was made to adapt to the natural resources of the area by organizing educational outings, experimental activities, and encouraging the participation of families. The overall objective is to test the effectiveness of applying the PBL teaching methodology for learning science in a rural learning community. The methodology used has been qualitative, specifically, the participating research has been used and the information has been compiled in a field notebook. The results show that the didactic proposal had good results; showing that, in conclusion, science teaching today should be inclined toward more innovative educational methodologies such as PBL.     

On the student evaluation of university courses and faculty members’ teaching performance

Trying to determine higher education quality, one gets quickly to one of its significant dimensions, namely the quality of faculty members’ teaching. The latter and, overall, the quality of any university course should be certainly evaluated by their recipients, namely students. In this paper we develop a statistical framework based on Statistical Quality Control mainly, which can be used in order to exploit student evaluations as much as possible. More specifically we present two directions of data monitoring and analysis; the one uses control charts and the other hypotheses testing. The results that can be raised through both directions are crucial for any decision maker.     

How some research mathematicians and statisticians use proof in undergraduate mathematics

The paper examines the roles and purposes of proof mentioned by university research faculty when reflecting on their own teaching and teaching at their institutions. Interview responses from 14 research mathematicians and statisticians who also teach are reported. The results suggest there is a great deal of variation in the role and purpose of proof in and among mathematics courses and that factors such as the course title, audience, and instructor influence this variation. The results also suggest that, for this diverse group, learning how to prove theorems is the most prominent role of proof in upper division undergraduate mathematics courses and that this training is considered preparation for graduate mathematics studies. Absent were responses discussing proof's role in preparing K-12 mathematics teachers. Implications for a proof and proving landscape for school mathematics are discussed.     

Observation of Reform Teaching in Undergraduate Level Mathematics and Science Courses

This paper reports on initial results from an ongoing evaluation study of a National Science Foundation project to implement reform‐oriented teaching practices in college science and mathematics courses. The purpose of this study was to determine what elements of reform teaching are being utilized by college faculty members teaching undergraduate science and mathematics courses, including a qualitative estimate of the frequency with which they are used. Participating instructors attended summer institutes that modeled reform‐based practices and fostered reflection on current issues in science, mathematics, and technological literacy for K‐16 teaching, with an explicit emphasis on the importance of creating the best possible learning experience for prospective K‐12 science and mathematics teachers. Utilizing a unique classroom observation protocol (the Oregon‐Teacher Observation Protocol) and interviews, the authors (a) conclude that some reform‐oriented teaching strategies are evident in undergraduate mathematics and science instruction and (b) suggest areas in which additional support and feedback are needed in order for higher education faculty members to adopt reform‐based instructional methodology.     

MATLAB in first-year engineering mathematics

The paper details the integration of the mathematical software MATLAB into the teaching of core mathematics to first-year university engineering students. The engineering faculty requested that the mathematics staff allocate one hour per week for students to learn and use MATLAB in a computer pool and that group projects involving the use of MATLAB and other similar tasks be included in the overall assessment of the subject. The central concept in achieving this integration was the production of a guide A Focused Introduction to MATLAB which provides a bridge between the software and the core subject material covered in the textbooks and lectures. Recent extensions involve the construction of a Web site dedicated to this subject where students can obtain all information concerning the subject, including a copy of all MATLAB code and corresponding graphical demonstrations used in the lectures. Feedback has been very positive.     

Factors affecting student success in a first-year mathematics course: a South African experience

In spite of sustained efforts tertiary institutions implement to try and improve student academic performance, the number of students succeeding in first-year mathematics courses remains disturbingly low. For most students, the gap between their mathematical capability and the competencies they are expected and need to develop to function effectively in these courses persists even after course instruction. In this study, an instrument for identifying and examining factors affecting student performance and success in a first-year Mathematics university course was developed and administered to 86 students. The overall Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was found to be 0.916. Having identified variables from prior research known to affect student performance, factor analysis was used to identify variables exhibiting the greatest impact on student performance. The variables included prior academic knowledge, workload, student approaches to learning, assessment, student support teaching quality, methods and resources. From the analysis, students' perceptions of their workload emerged as the factor having the greatest impact on student's performance, followed by the matriculation examination score. The findings are discussed and strategies that can be used to improve teaching and contribute to student success in a first-year mathematics course in a South African context are presented.     

Building Bridges and Crossing Borders: Using Service Learning to Overcome Cultural Barriers to Collaboration Between Science and Education Departments

Powerful preparation of elementary educators in teaching science involves significant contributions from both scientists and teacher educators. Ironically, faculty and students in science and teacher education departments are often isolated from one another not only across the physical boundaries of the university, but across the cultural boundaries of academe. Coordination and collaboration between science and education faculty and students requires a careful negotiation of these cultural boundaries. This paper presents several illustrations of both successful and unsuccessful collaborative episodes documented during the creation of an interdepartmental service learning project, Science Outreach. The illustrations are interpreted in terms of a cultural difference model, and recommendations are made for successful interdepartmental collaboration.     

Determining Teaching and Research Efficiencies

In this paper we consider the problem of determining teaching and research efficiencies for university departments concerned with the same discipline. Considering this problem highlights the issue of how to determine efficiencies when resources are shared between different activities, and a non-linear approach to this issue based upon data envelopment analysis is presented. Computational results are given for chemistry and physics departments in the United Kingdom.     

A Hierarchical Goal-Programming Approach to Reverse Resource Allocation in Institutions of Higher Learning

As universities react to severe financial pressures, there is a danger that too much emphasis will be placed on ‘balancing the budget’ at the expense of the academic goals of the institution. Therefore, the overall objective of this paper is to design and implement a model for reducing the operating budgets of the academic units of a university, while reflecting the diverse goals of the academic community. It recognizes that faculty, department chairmen and deans should share the responsibility of ‘reverse’ resource allocations or budget reductions. The model utilizes a goal-programming approach to reflect the multiple-phased model to allow for some degree of decentralization of decision making.The model is applied to a small private university. The solution to the model reveals the distribution of budget reductions among the schools and within the departments. A survey of potential users reveals a definite preference for the model results over the actual budget procedure.     

University−Urban High School Partnership: Math and Science Professional Learning Communities

This study focused on science and math professional learning communities (PLCs) that were implemented through a university‐urban high school partnership. These PLCs were part of mandated school‐wide, content‐based PLCs implemented as part of the reform efforts initiated in an urban school to address the school's failure to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for four years consecutively and low graduation rate (less than 25%) for male students. The key issues were (a) students had continually earned low test scores; (b) there was continuous principal turnover; (c) faculty morale was at an all‐time low, and the quality of teaching was very poor; and (d) the students were not effectively disciplined. The study examined the impact that university faculty‐led mandated PLCs have on teachers' practices and students' learning and achievement. Analysis of data revealed practices that were effective in developing and implementing these successful math and science PLCs. Three themes emerged: ethics of care, teacher agency, and aesthetics of professional interactions. Each theme contained key features that appeared to contribute to the implementation of a successful PLC.     

Mathematics university teachers' perception of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

Teaching mathematics in university levels is one of the most important fields of research in the area of mathematics education. Nevertheless, there is little information about teaching knowledge of mathematics university teachers. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) provides a suitable framework to study knowledge of teachers. The purpose of this paper is to make explicit the perception of mathematics university teachers about PCK. For this purpose, a phenomenological study was done. Data resources included semi-structured interviews with 10 mathematics university teachers who were in different places of the mathematics university teaching experience spectrum. Data analysis indicated a model consisting of four cognitive themes which are mathematics syntactic knowledge, knowledge about mathematics curriculum planning, knowledge about students' mathematics learning and knowledge about creating an influential mathematics teaching–learning environment. Besides, it was found out that three contextual themes influenced on PCK for teaching mathematics in university levels which were the nature of mathematics subjects, university teachers' features and terms of learning environment.     

以《常微分方程》课程为例浅谈教学也是一种学术

为社会发展培养高素质的人才是高校教师的主要职责,这需要学校、乃至教师在教学理念、教学手段和教学形式、培养模式和教学研究等方面进行全方位思考,还应加强教学学术发展的制度保障,促进教学与科研的协调发展．本文以常微分方程课程为例,阐明教学与科研一样也是学术这一观点。     

Engineering process as a focus: STEM professional development with elementary STEM‐focused professional development schools

Young children are capable of engaging in STEM investigations when they are guided by skilled and knowledgeable teachers. However, many elementary teachers may lack sufficient STEM content knowledge and report feeling unprepared to teach STEM content. Two university faculty members in mathematics and science education, worked to cultivate and advance two designated Elementary STEM‐Focused professional development schools through a two year series of an after‐school STEM professional development (PD) Program. As the STEM PD Program progressed, it became evident that teachers were interested in and needed more experiences with the elements of the engineering process for young learners. With this in mind, several of the PD sessions were designed to highlight the engineering process and allow teachers to experience various activities that would engage young learners. To examine how this focus on the engineering process impacted the teachers in this STEM PD Program, a research study was organized during year two of the STEM PD Program. The results of this study provide evidence that this program had a positive influence on the teacher participants’ engineering teacher efficacy and implementation of engineering lessons and activities within their classrooms.     

研究型大学教师绩效模糊综合评价探究

研究型大学核心竞争力在于师资队伍的整体素质.公正客观的评价结果是建立在科学合理的评价指标体系和评价方法之上的,它对教师工作不仅具有鉴定、管理的作用,而且具有直接的导向、改进和激励的功能.从高校的科学研究、培养人才、服务社会的功能出发,建立教师绩效综合评价的指标体系,应用模糊数学构建教师绩效的模糊综合评价模型,利用层次分析法确定指标权重,为研究型大学教师绩效评价提供一套科学可行的方法.     

The functions of function discourse – university mathematics teaching from a commognitive standpoint

This paper addresses a topic within university mathematics education which has been somewhat underexplored: the teaching practices actually used by university mathematics teachers when giving lectures. The study investigates the teaching practices of seven Swedish university teachers on the topic of functions using a discursive approach, the commognitive framework of Sfard. In the paper a categorization of the construction and substantiation routines used by the teachers is presented, for instance various routines for constructing definitions and examples, and for verifying whether an example satisfies a given definition. The findings show that although the overall form of the lectures is similar, with teachers using ‘chalk talk’, and overt student participation limited to asking and answering questions, there are in fact significant differences in the way the teachers present and do mathematics in their lectures. These differences present themselves both on the level of discursive routines and on a more general level in how the process of doing mathematics is made visible in the teachers’ teaching practices. Moreover, I believe that many of the results of the study could be relevant for investigating the teaching of other mathematical topics.     

A Collaborative Effort to Improve University Engineering Instruction

This study focused on the instructional development of an assistant professor of environmental engineering in collaboration with science education and higher education faculty members. One semester of data was collected in the assistant professor's environmental engineering laboratory class as he endeavored to address his teaching goals. Data collection included pre and post interviews with the assistant professor, students, and program coordinator, and collection of course documents, such as the course syllabus and assignments. In addition, all of the classroom sessions were observed and videotaped, and a midsemester video stimulated‐recall interview was conducted. Results show the assistant professor made growth in the areas of questioning strategies, “think time” for students, increased class participation, and the implementation of a student‐designed field research project. Implications include that new professors can benefit from peer faculty support, and they and their students can benefit when the new professors recognize the complementary nature of research and teaching.