A critical component of transforming STEM undergraduate education from didactic lectures to learner-centered teaching is well-trained faculty who effectively implement evidence-based teaching practices. Many professional development programs are designed to achieve this goal. The Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching IV (FIRST IV) program guided 201 life science postdoctoral scholars in mentored teams to create curriculum and implement teaching practices based on scientific teaching: teaching science using science practices (e.g, modeling, working with data, constructing arguments) to learn core concepts. FIRST IV demonstrated evidence of postdocs teaching learner-centered courses following the program and FIRST IV faculty persisted using learner-centered practices 6-9 years later. These faculty are now at a range of institution types, from research universities to community colleges. In educational ecosystems, teaching practices stem from within the individual (e.g. confidence) and from outside influences (e.g. departmental culture). We investigated the research question: How do these factors affect learner-centered teaching practices? Our study used a longitudinal, paired design in which data on faculty teaching beliefs, intentions, self-efficacy, and perceptions of departmental culture were collected from 40 pairs of FIRST IV faculty and a matched comparison colleague in their department for three years (2016-2019).
Results/Conclusions
We found that FIRST IV and comparison faculty differed in their perceptions of the teaching and learning environment as well as the potential challenges of implementing active learning. FIRST IV faculty also had more critical perspectives of their department’s culture surrounding teaching. Additionally, we created a model of teaching practice to assess the relative importance of faculty teaching beliefs and intentions, self-efficacy, percent time teaching, course size, professional development, and departmental climate. Faculty self-efficacy and professional development emerged from the average model as the factors with the largest effect sizes. Faculty who self-reported higher confidence in teaching methods and participated in the FIRST IV program taught more learner-centered courses. Our results suggest that departmental climate and other external factors do not appear to be as influential on teaching practices as faculty training and confidence. These results emphasize the value of professional development programs like FIRST IV that succeeded in guiding faculty to teach learner-centered courses within a variety of institutional and departmental settings.