Author(s):
Need: At Elmhurst University and many other small, private institutions, a significant percentage of introductory STEM courses are taught by part-time faculty. Instructors teaching first-year STEM courses play an essential role in student retention in college and in STEM. However, part-time faculty are associated with lower first-year persistence and lower graduation rates in STEM. Part-time faculty generally have fewer resources and less access to development opportunities. Studies investigating the needs of part-time faculty stress the need for connection with full-time colleagues, more awareness of campus resources, and greater inclusion in institutional efforts.
The ACCESS STEM program is a comprehensive effort to improve first-year student outcomes by supporting part-time STEM faculty. The program includes a faculty development curriculum including best practices for utilizing institutional support mechanisms, diversity and inclusion, STEM-specific evidence-based pedagogical methods, and utilizing psychological interventions based in cognitive science. ACCESS STEM also expands institutional support for part-time STEM faculty and investigates the impact of the comprehensive faculty development model on student success and on faculty attitudes and teaching behaviors.
Guiding Questions: The program asks the following questions:
1. To what extent will part-time faculty members participating in the program change their pedagogical approaches?
2. Are students’ performance in first-year STEM courses improving and to what extent are students persisting term-to-term?
3. How effective are our efforts to increase support for part-time faculty members?
Outcomes:
We administered the Survey of Climate for Instructional Improvement (SCII; Walter et al., 2016) and the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (PIPS; Walter et al., 2017) to all part-time and full-time faculty members in STEM. Our findings include:
• Part-time faculty report experiencing lower collegiality than their full-time colleagues but are more satisfied with resources and organizational support than their full-time colleagues as measured by these factors on the SCII.
• Significant differences between part-time and full-time faculty were found for two factors of the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (PIPS): Student-Student Interactions and Content Delivery Practices. Our findings suggest part-time faculty utilize teaching methods involving student-student interaction less frequently than full-time faculty.
• Sense of belonging does not differ significantly for participants vs. non-participants, but positive trends are encouraging.
In a post-program survey of all part-time faculty, participants self-reported the largest relative gains in embedding collaborative learning into the classroom when compared with non-participants. Participants reported the largest gains in two areas: knowing how to refer students to a variety of tutoring and peer learning opportunities and developing a greater awareness of the diversity and needs of the student body.
While the sample sizes are too small for statistical significance, we see positive trends in the course evaluations before and after participation.
Broader Impacts: In three years, a total of 16 part-time STEM faculty participated in at least one mini-course. In 2023-2024, there were 57 STEM sections taught by participants, with a total enrollment of 1160. 30.9% of undergraduate students at our Hispanic-Serving Institution identify as Hispanic.
Coauthors
Kimberly A. Lawler-Sagarin, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL; Tina S. Kazan, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL; Thomas P. Sawyer Jr., Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL; Brian C. Wilhite, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, IL
