Author(s):
Need: Teaching-focused professional development (TPD) is often targeted to early-career faculty, both within institutions and within STEM disciplines. Such programs seek to support instructors who earned a STEM Ph.D. but had little opportunity to develop as teachers. New instructors’ work efficiency and career satisfaction, and their effectiveness with students, may benefit if they learn early to apply research-based methods in their teaching. However, there is little research evidence to support this early-launch argument, or about whether initial changes to teaching beliefs and practices persist.
Guiding Questions: Project Launchpad is a study of early-career TPD within two established, multi-day programs in mathematics. The study probes teaching practices before, during and after the program, and compares both early-career participants and TPD alumni with matched non-participant groups. Using surveys, classroom observations, and analysis of syllabi, we explore the immediate and short-term impact of early-career TPD on teaching practices and other elements of a faculty career, seeking to answer these research questions:
1) How does early-career teaching-related professional development (EC-TPD) influence instructional practices, knowledge and beliefs?
2) How does EC-TPD influence career achievements in teaching, service and leadership?
3) How do these teaching and career outcomes vary among individuals and institutions?
4) What features of EC-TPD lead to the observed outcomes?
5) What can be learned about measurement of teaching practice from large data sets combining instructor and student surveys, classroom observations and assessments?
Outcomes: We highlight selected findings from a survey of TPD alumni who participated in the program 6-25 years prior to data collection. The survey asked about professional development experiences and benefits of early-career TPD programs; current teaching practices in a specific course and general departmental expectations; academic career outcomes such as publications, service, awards, and leadership positions; and engagement with professional societies. We also gathered individual and institutional demographics. We received 647 usable responses from alumni, and 255 comparison responses. We conducted descriptive analyses and a latent profile analysis (LPA) of the data respondents provided about a current course. The LPA identifies patterns of connection among multiple data elements.
As examples of career results, the TPD alumni were more likely to report career activities that emphasize teaching, teaching development, and teaching-related service, as well as initiatives to promote equity and inclusion. Comparison group faculty were more likely to work with graduate students, edit journals, and receive awards.
Among teaching outcomes, courses taught by TPD alumni were more likely to use active and collaborative teaching approaches, such as small-group work, discussions, and student presentations. They were less likely to use formal lecture. When all the associations among data are taken into account, alumni courses were twice as likely to fit the “active” profile derived from the LPA.
Broader Impacts: Overall, the results suggest that early-career TPD can have lasting impacts on participants’ careers and on their teaching practices. In particular, socialization into a community of same-stage peers and more experienced mentors may help to foster ongoing engagement with educational issues and offer pathways to continue to develop as an educator.
Coauthors
Timothy J. Weston, Tim Archie, Sarah Wise, Nancy Kress, Jenny Valadez Fraire, Kyra Gallion, U. Colorado Boulder, CO
