Dokter Poster

							Practice and Perception: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Effects of a Professional Development Workshop for College Astronomy Faculty*
                                                                                          Erin F.C. Dokter, The University of Arizona

Abstract
While faculty development resources abound, STEM-specific
                                                                        Table 1.                                                                                                 Preliminary Results and Conclusions
                                                                        Pre-and post-workshop teaching strategies that best promote student learning with explanations
faculty development efforts are quite limited. The purpose of this
                                                                        Pre-workshop Teaching      Explanation               Post-workshop Teaching Explanation
qualitative study was to explore and describe the influence of one      Strategy                                             Strategy                                                  Reported Teaching Conceptions
such effort, a 2-day learner-centered professional development
                                                                        In-class activities that   Has them directly learn   Lecture-Tutorial          Gives students focused
workshop for two- and four-year college astronomy faculty. In           help them learn (not       the material by making    [Workshop strategy]       activities that promote
particular, faculty conceptions of teaching and teaching practice,      busy-work exercises)       their own discoveries,                              their comprehension       Immediately prior to and following the workshop, faculty
the conceptions of their students, as well as the teaching                                         rather than just                                    and extend their          were asked to provide three instructional strategies that
conceptions of the faculty developers were examined. Data                                          memorizing info                                     understanding
                                                                                                                                                                                 promote students’ learning and explain how these
sources include open-ended, pre- and post-workshop
                                                                        Out of class               Forces them to really     Think-Pair-Share          Encourages interaction    strategies did so.
questionnaires from over 200 astronomy faculty, teaching
                                                                        assignments which have     understand the material   [Workshop strategy]       and debate.
observations and interviews with five selected faculty, interviews      them apply their           by extending their
with the three faculty developers, as well as Likert and open-          knowledge to new           knowledge to a new
                                                                                                                                                                                 Following the workshop, faculty more frequently reported
ended surveys from over 300 introductory astronomy students.            situations                 situation.                                                                    workshop teaching strategies as those that promoted
Results document the individual goals of faculty as they                                                                                                                         student learning. The explanations for these strategies
participated in the workshop, the complexity of their teaching          Group discussion           Helps them realize what   Clickers                  Good way to get
                                                                                                                                                                                 tended to be more simple, brief, and vague, but also
conceptions and practices, the range of student interpretations of                                 they know and they can    [Workshop strategy]       immediate feedback and
                                                                                                   teach that info to                                  check attendance          related to pre-workshop responses. (Table 1)
the teaching that goes on in their classrooms, as well as
                                                                                                   someone else (& we all
documenting a change in teaching beliefs of the faculty                                            know the way to really
developers from year to year. This study reveals that a common                                     learn a subject is to                                                          Faculty may have changed their beliefs regarding
faculty development workshop experience has many and varied                                        teach it)
                                                                                                                                                                                 the teaching strategies that best promote students’
outcomes that are highly individualized to the faculty who
                                                                                                                                                                                 learning, and made sense of these new strategies in
participate, that one success of this particular faculty development
program was its discipline-specificity, and that student reactions to                                                                                                            terms of their “native” beliefs.
the enacted workshop teaching techniques were also highly
varied.                                                                                                                                                                                Reported Teaching Practice

                                                                                                                                                                                 Between six and eighteen months after attending the
Research Question                                                                                                                                                                workshop, faculty were asked to complete an online
How do two- and four-year college astronomy                                                                                                                                      survey about their use of workshop teaching strategies.
  instructors incorporate the pedagogical tools                                                                                                                                  Approximately two-thirds of respondents reported using
  from a faculty development workshop into their                                                                                                                                 workshop teaching strategies (Lecture Tutorials, Think-
                                                                                                                                                                                 Pair-Share, and Ranking Tasks) at least once in their
  “native” teaching beliefs and practices?
                                                                                                                                                                                 current introductory astronomy classes. About one-third
                                                                                                                                                                                 reported using these at least once per week. (Table 2)
                                                                        Figure 1. Reported frequency of use of teaching strategies by Astro 101 instructors (n=43)
Methodology                                                                                                                                                                       Faculty reported incorporation of workshop
                                                                        Table 2.                                                                                                 teaching strategies into their teaching practice
This study utilizes a qualitative, case study design                    Reported barrier clusters, sample quotations, and frequencies (N=122)
                                                                                                                                                                                 following participation.
(Creswell, 1998, 2003). Participants include:                           Barrier                  Representative Quotations                                    Frequency
                                                                        Curriculum and           “Assuming that the students have purchased the tutorial      38
                                                                        Instruction              book, the biggest problem seems to me to be classroom                                Reported Barriers to Change
   •122 two- and four-year college astronomy                                                     management, and following through with the right kind of
                                                                                                 assessment.”
   instructors                                                                                   “Designing effective lectures to get students ready for                         Following the workshop, faculty were asked to select
   •The three faculty developers                                        Logistics
                                                                                                 [Lecture-Tutorials]”
                                                                                                 “Cost”                                                       25
                                                                                                                                                                                 one of their reported post-workshop teaching strategies
   •Five faculty “heavy adopters” of the workshop                                                “The ability to write good questions”                                           (Table 1) and report any obstacles to implementing that
                                                                        Time                     “Getting a balance between lecture & tutorials in terms of   23                 strategy. Most faculty reported one of the active learning
   teaching strategies                                                                           time.”
                                                                                                                                                                                 strategies taught in the workshop. These six themes
   •316 introductory astronomy students enrolled in                                              “Finding the time to do it AND be able to cover everything
                                                                                                 that I still want to.”                                                          emerged, which are generally consistent with previous
   the “heavy adopters” courses                                         Personal                 “My inexperience with the strategy”                          20                 literature on reported barriers to change (e.g. Sunal,
                                                                                                 “It takes time & energy to change.”
                                                                                                 “Probably me. I am not always the best to work in groups                        Sunal, Whitaker, Freeman, Odell, Hodges, Edwards, &
Data sources include:                                                                            myself”                                                                         Johnston, 2001; Henderson & Dancy, 2007). As seen in
                                                                        Student Response         “Student resistance to any collaborative activity”           18
                                                                                                 “Non-participation”
                                                                                                                                                                                 Table 2, over 75% of the barriers reported were external
• Open-ended pre- & post-workshop faculty surveys                       No Reported Barrier      “None”                                                       14                 (e.g. time, logistical) rather than internal (e.g. personal).
• Fixed & open-ended post-workshop online surveys                                                                                                                                The distribution of types of barriers to implementation for
• Faculty developer interviews                                                                                                                                                   both workshop and other (i.e. “native”) teaching
• Workshop observations                                                                                                                                                          strategies were reported by faculty. As seen in Figure 2,
• Faculty interviews                                                                                                                                                             the distributions are quite similar, except where it came
• Classroom observations                                                                                                                                                         to logistical, personal, or no barriers.        Workshop
• Likert & open-ended student surveys                                                                                                                                            teaching strategies elicited more logistical and personal
                                                                                                                                                                                 barriers for respondents, while “native” teaching
                                                                                                                                                                                 strategies were much more likely to elicit no barriers.
Open-ended faculty survey questions and faculty
developer interviews were analyzed using the                                                                                                                                      Faculty reported similar barriers to change as are
constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss,                                                                                                                                   seen in the literature. New teaching strategies
1967), clustering and counting (Miles & Huberman,                                                                                                                                elicited a greater incidence of perceived personal
1994), and connection circle visualization (Quaden                                                                                                                               and logistical barriers than “native” strategies.
& Ticotsky, 2005).
                                                                        Figure 2. Comparison of self-reported barriers to implementing workshop & other teaching strategies      *Note: This poster describes preliminary results. This study is ongoing.
                                                                        (n=122)