AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative Overview

AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative Tobin Smith AAU Vice President for Policy ISSUES Workshop January 30, 2014

History Boyer Commission Report, 1998 Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America s Research Universities Undergraduate Research Pilot Study, 2001 Standards for Success, 2003 Understanding University Success Informal Survey of STEM Retention Programs at AAU Universities, 2010 AAU Undergraduate STEM Initiative, 2011

Mission Statement The goal of the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative is to help influence the culture of STEM departments at AAU universities so that faculty are encouraged and supported to use evidence-based, student- centered, active, sustainable pedagogy in their classes, particularly at the freshman and sophomore levels.

Key Components of AAU Initiative Framework (Goal #1) Develop a framework of evidence-based practices that can be used to improve STEM teaching and to measure these improvements "AAU is not conducting another study or research project on STEM education. We are moving to implement the results of the latest research into science and math pedagogy. AAU STEM Projects & AAU STEM Network (Goal #2) Identify a subset of AAU institutions that will serve as projects sites to implement the framework Find ways to engage all of our members Incentives (Goals #3 and #4) Explore institutional and departmental incentives for good teaching Work with federal agencies on mechanisms to encourage good teaching Promising Practices (Goal #5) Develop effective means for sharing information about effective undergrad STEM programs, approaches, and methods for evaluating teaching Hunter Rawlings, AAU President

Framework for Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Teaching & Learning The Framework outline provides a set of key institutional elements that need to be addressed in order to bring about sustainable change. Faculty Members Department Chairs College & University Administrators Institutions

Campus Engagement: Framework Requested feedback on the framework Tell us about current undergraduate STEM reform initiatives on your campus Tell us about how you evaluate, recognize and reward effective teaching, and if there are significant differences across your campus 42 of our 62 institutions responded 21 public, 19 private, 2 Canadian What are the barriers that exist to implementing evidence- based STEM education practices on your campus

What We Learned Undergraduate STEM reform initiatives in process on AAU campus AAU institutions have already undertaken a number of innovative efforts to improve undergraduate STEM education Pedagogy Course Content/Curriculum Graduate Student Training/Future Faculty Development Faculty Development Retention of Women, Minorities and other Underrepresented Groups Broader Institutional Policies & Practices Workforce Development K-12 Teacher Development 0 10 20 30 40 *Based on 42 AAU institutions comments to the STEM Initiative Framework question: Do you have significant undergraduate STEM reform initiatives already in process?

Campus Barriers to Implementing Evidence-Based Teaching Rewards: Value or Weight of Teaching Rewards: Evaluating Teaching Faculty: Time Pressures Faculty: Not trained in teaching and learning Faculty: Resistant to change Faculty: Decentralized efforts Resources: Physical Space Faculty: Learning outcomes/assessment Students: Pipeline Issues Resources: Lack of funds to support faculty Students: Inclusion Issues Students: Resistant to learning in new ways Faculty: Disciplinary identity Resources: Minimal adminstrative funds Faculty: Contingent not included in decission making Faculty: Contingent faculty access to resources 0 5 10 15 20 25 *Based on 42 AAU institutions comments to the STEM Initiative Framework questions.

STEM Project Sites Brown University Michigan State University The University of Arizona University of California, Davis University of Colorado, Boulder The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Pennsylvania Washington University in St. Louis

Metrics & Evaluation NSF Widening Implementation & Demonstration of Evidence-Based Reforms (WIDER) grant Development of a set of metrics that will allow individual institutions to Document teaching practices Measure learning outcomes Assess factors that support sustained institutional change in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning framework AAU will encourage its institutions to collect data, and to share information on these metrics with peer institutions for potential benchmarking.

AAU STEM Network Maintain interest, involvement and momentum at member institutions Sustain campus-based dialogues Convene workshops Information sharing among campus points of contact Share best practices Build examples around the core framework elements Metrics & Evaluation Metrics to shift institutional culture toward evidence-based instructional practices

Collaboration & Collective Action Coalition for Reform of Undergraduate STEM Education Cottrell Scholars and HHMI Professors National Undergraduate STEM Partnership Disciplinary Societies