- Multiple STEM courses (across the country and institution types) are riddled with high DFW rates (students earning the grade of D or F or withdrawing), thus becoming blocked gates rather than open gateways to success.
- The 'swirl': many students take an array of gateway STEM courses across institutions - through dual enrollment in high scool, as transient students at another institution during summer terms, or as students transferring from a non-baccalaureate institution (2-year college) to a baccalaureate-granting institution (4-year college).
- Students who start at 2-year colleges often have fewer socioeconomic resources, which exacerbates equity issues.
- Students in STEM degrees who start at 2-year colleges take longer to finish, graduate at lower rates, and have more acquired credits that do not apply toward a degree.
- Our idea: Faculty are an often overlooked resource for improving gateway student success. Create structured faculty learning communities among institutions to drive equity and alignment.
Questions for Discussion:
- What is the view from your classroom and/or institution?
- In what ways are you experiencing 'the swirl'?
- Let us know - Interactive Padlet for discussion. (If you haven't pulled up this presentation yet, the shortcut link again is bit.ly/STEMgateway.)
Funded through the HHMI's Inclusive Excellence 3 initiative learning community grant.
The "STEM Design and Faculty Learning Community" offered sessions to learn about design/redesign within an equity framework and to practice peer review of one's assignments, classroom activities, and syllabus within the learning community. Approximate time commitment: 4 hours/month, January-April 2022.
The goal of the sessions, materials, and faculty learning community was to enable participants to design/redesign components of a STEM course: assignments, classroom activities, and syllabi. Faculty participated in 7-8 synchronous sessions in both large and small groups.
Gateway STEM Design & Faculty Learning Community
Designed to help STEM instructors of gateway courses incorporate inclusive practices into their course assignments, activities, and syllabi.
Participants included: faculty from an R1 institution and faculty from a 2-year institution
Modality:
- One semester
- Mostly virtual with an optional end-of-semester gathering, in-person
- Asynchronous content with biweekly synchronous meetings
Asynchronous and Synchronous Materials
Please follow us to the Google Site! Shared materials and open source ideas: Gateway STEM course at bit.ly/3ITVTBP or
Large group "design" meetings
Monthly synchronous guided discussions, posted for each module on the resources page. For example: see inclusive active learning at bit.ly/3ORE5v1
Faculty learning community meetings
Monthly smaller groups with a faculty leader to further explore application of the lesson and resources and to work on their own revisions ("deliverables").
Pausing for Q & A
Data was collected through:
- FLC deliverables (pre and post)
- Pre- and Post- surveys
- Reflections
FLC Deliverables
We focused heavily on the components of TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching model) and learner-focused assignment design. The guides and workshops created emphasized faculty self-reflection of their artifacts.
Every assignment/assessment must have:
- PURPOSE: Aligns with what knowledge or skills students will gain. Transparent about sharing the relevance of the assignment. Practically useful to students outside of class.
- TASKS: Clearly indicates what the students should do and how they should do it.
- CRITERIA: Communicates how students will be assessed. Include examples of completed assigments.
- INCLUSIVE, LEARNER-FOCUSED ASPECTS: Welcoming and positive so students can approach the assignment confidently. Respectful of diversity. When possible, provides choice.
Findings
- Revised assignments overall show growth in learner-focused assignment design. FLC participants document the changes they make.
- Assignments that are not quizzes or tests are often easier to adapt for transparent, learner-focused design than assignments that are tests and quizzes.
- Test changes were adopted; these are more focused than whole-scale assignment redesign, but did improve transparency and guidance for students.
- Overall, participants improved assignment design the most in the TASKS area. Revisions in INCLUSIVE aspects are not as apparent in construction of tests and quizzes.
Example Revised Assignment - Pecha Kucha in Physics
Example Revised Test - Calculus II
Example Exam Wrapper - Physics
Survey results
Participants in FLCs indicated feeling a strong sense of community and appreciated the mixing of perspectives of individuals in different stages in their careers and from different institutions.
Participants in FLCs indicated that they felt prepared to implement what they learned in their courses.
Reflection Results
"I always had the goal of creating an inclusive classroom where my students could learn and feel supported...but I was never clear about how to do that. Now I know how many small, concrete steps I can take to support my students."
"Previously, I viewed inclusivity as an add-on. Something to think about after my course was designed. Now I know that inclusivity should be viewed from the bottom-up and should be considered in every part of the course."
"We need to show our students that their voice matters, both orally in what we say to them and explicitly written out in what we give to them in the syllabus and assignments."
Continue to offer FLCs across the academic year to faculty at the 2-year and 4-year institutions.
Keep an emphasis on the community aspects of the FLC.
Focus on inclusive design, which is not always as straight-forward for STEM classes.
Facilitate more ongoing and in depth analysis of FLC deliverables for evidence of course changes for inclusive design.
This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We would like to thank our participants for making this work possible. We would also like to thank Clemson's Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation and Dr. Karen High for their assistance with the design and implementation of the FLCs. We are thankful for the leadership and research support of the new Dr. Abby Boyd - Ph.D. Candidate in Engineering & Science Education.
