Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC)
Promoting and supporting evidence-based teaching and learning in the nine natural sciences departments at University of Pittsburgh
School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus
Established: 2014
Profile submitted by Chandralekha Singh
Vision and Goals
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC) promotes and supports evidence-based practices to bridge the gap between teaching and learning. dB-SERC fosters innovative active engagement techniques based upon discipline-based education research in the natural sciences for both majors and non-majors.
Center/Program Structure
dB-SERC is currently it is run by a Director and a post-doc assists with all aspects of the center. The Center is an independent Unit in the School of Arts and Sciences. While the administrative support is strong, it is run by the Director, who is a faculty member, and a post-doc as noted earlier.
Description of Programming
dB-SERC works primarily with STEM faculty, graduate students, and post-docs. We organize workshops on teaching and learning conducted by both internal and external facilitators. Examples include teaching related workshops for new faculty or veteran faculty members, graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants, workshops on formative assessment, problem solving and critical thinking skills, modeling instruction etc. dB-SERC also provides yearly awards to faculty for educationally innovative projects which have resulted in transformed classrooms in multiple disciplines, e.g., physics, chemistry, psychology, biology, computer science etc. dB-SERC also organizes a faculty learning community through which faculty in various natural science departments meet to discuss, e.g., issues pertaining to teaching, educational research, implementation of instructional innovations etc. In addition, dB-SERC also provides course implementation support and assessment consultation.
Successes and Impacts
As a result of our awards for course transformation several evidence-based innovative projects have been implemented and assessed to improve student learning. For example, several flipped introductory courses have been sustained after the award period. More than 500 students have been impacted so far, and, motivated by the success of the initial implementations, the interest for flipped instruction has grown to multiple disciplines, thus continually impacting more and more students. The impact was documented by assessing the impact of the course transformation efforts on student learning and attitudes about the disciplines they have studied.
In addition, due to collaboration with dB-SERC, one of the natural science departments received a grant from NSF to improve their graduate education program. The assessment and evaluation of the project will be done collaboratively between dB-SERC and this department.
Elements Contributing to Success
Very strong support from the Administration