Research on Institutional Change and Professional Development

Over the past 20 years, numerous institutions and groups have repeatedly called for changes in undergraduate STEM education in the United States in order to develop a stronger, more diverse STEM workforce, to foster a more scientifically literate society, and to improve equitable access to education for all. To achieve these goals, substantial improvements in areas as broad as instruction, mentoring and advising, and departmental climate must be made. Our ability to change can be supported by a better understanding of how educators, departments, and institutions change and how professional development opportunities foster and support productive change. This theme chapter considers how future geoscience education research can address issues of change in institutions of higher education and professional development that will promote high-quality geoscience education. Specifically, it identifies and describes three grand challenges that connect to the following components: the individual geoscience instructor, the departments and programs in which geoscience instructors teach, and the broader communities in which these departments operate

ASSESSING THE INSTRUCTIONAL UTILITY AND LEARNING EFFICACY OF COMMON ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES

<p>The adoption of active learning instructional practices in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses has been shown to result in improvements in student learning, contribute to increased retention rates, and reduce the achievement gap among different student populations. Descriptions of active learning strategies have been reported in other disciplines; however, the research literature that documents the success of these strategies may be unfamiliar to many geoscience instructors. This literature review seeks to serve as a bridge that connects the reflective practitioner, the research literature on instructional strategies, and the network of community resources available to the geoscience educator. We review the characteristics of 11 active learning strategies and weigh the evidence that these strategies improve student learning. Furthermore, we analyze the utility of these strategies in the context of their use in geoscience classrooms. We seek to provide geoscience instructors with a decision-making guide and evidence-based recommendations that they can use to select and implement active learning strategies that have the potential to enhance undergraduate learning experiences in geoscience courses.</p