Resumen de Short and Long-Term Impacts of the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative New Faculty Workshop
Marilyne Stains, Matthew Pilarz, Devasmita Chakraverty
Postsecondary chemistry instructors typically have received little pedagogical training as graduate students and postdoctoral research assistants. Moreover, professional development opportunities are often limited at their own institution. This lack of training has resulted in a gap between the instructional strategies enacted in chemistry courses and the results of discipline-based education research. Members of the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative initiated the New Faculty Workshop (CSC NFW) program in 2012 in order to address this gap. This annual, two-day workshop provides newly-hired chemistry assistant professors from research-intensive universities with training on evidence-based instructional practices. This article presents the results of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design study that evaluates the short and long-term impacts of the workshop. Online surveys were collected immediately before and after the workshop, as well as one year later from CSC NFW participants and a control group that consisted of newly-hired chemistry faculty who did not participate in the workshop. Surveys measured faculty’s awareness and use of evidence-based instructional practices, teaching self-efficacy, and beliefs about teaching. Classroom video recordings were also collected during the fall semester following the workshop and two years later. These data were triangulated with the Student Evaluation for Educational Quality (SEEQ) survey, which was collected from students in the observed classrooms. Findings indicate that, in the short-term, the CSC NFW was successful in raising workshop participants’ self-efficacy, shifting their teaching beliefs toward student-centered teaching, and increasing their use of interactive teaching. Longitudinal data demonstrate that further pedagogical support is required in order for these impacts to be sustained.
