STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT)

Laura Frost, Florida Gulf Coast University

Program Description

A multidisciplinary STEM faculty professional development program called STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT) is completing its second year at Florida Gulf Coast University. This program seeks to increase the use and effectiveness of evidence-based practices in the introductory STEM classroom, develop professional peer observations, and enhance student learning in introductory STEM courses through STEM faculty projects in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). SPARCT includes a 36-hour summer STEM academy and a commitment to a faculty learning community during the subsequent academic year. One year of SPARCT has been completed. We chronicled faculty development progress through video interviews with participants, student retention, interest, and confidence in SPARCT participant classes, and faculty feedback on programming.

Program Purpose

A six-year study (2003-2009) by the U.S. Department of Education examining students entering STEM degree programs at 1,600 institutions nation-wide indicates 51.7% persist in STEM, 20.2% drop out of school, and 28.1% switch to a different major outside of STEM. A two-year tracking of 468 entering freshman at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) in 2009 indicated that only 41% of freshman persist in STEM majors, 36% drop out of school, and 32% switch to majors outside of STEM after two years. Improving these statistics is vital to regional, state, and national economies and in keeping U.S. students competitive in the global workplace. One strategy to increase persistence in STEM majors to meet this potential job deficit is to train STEM faculty in evidence-based practices in STEM teaching and learning at the post-secondary level while improving overall course design in introductory STEM course offerings. This project benefits both STEM faculty in their professional development as teachers which should translate to benefitting students in introductory STEM courses affecting recruitment and retention of STEM majors.

We were guided initially by Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory. If we could get 25% of our faculty to participate across departments offering introductory STEM courses, we reach well into the Early Adopter area which can have a significant effect on changing departmental culture.

Program Goals

The goals of SPARCT are to (1) enhance the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) by SPARCT faculty, (2) improve the use of evidence-based practices targeting the introductory STEM classroom, (3) develop long-term FLCs in STEM instruction, (4) develop a professional peer-observation strategy for the STEM classroom, and (5) enhance student learning in introductory STEM courses as a result of SPARCT faculty development.

Key activities to meet the goals include faculty participation in a 36 hour STEM Summer Academy focusing on evidence-based practices followed by extended faculty interactions during the academic year as a faculty learning community (FLC) that includes peer observation training and a professional development seminar series.

Program Activities

Participants: Following a 36 hour May academy, SPARCT faculty participate in monthly meetings during the academic year that include professional development seminars, peer observations of each other, and a faculty learning community where the faculty report out on their observations and their project progress. SPARCT faculty participants commit to a full year to enhance their use of evidence-based practice in an introductory STEM classroom. As part of this, they are asked to consider a project in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The goal of the SoTL projects is to demonstrate enhanced student learning in the introductory STEM course selected for study.

Planning Group: Following the recommendation of Henderson et al, the SPARCT planning team includes collaboration between the directors of a STEM Education Center and University Teaching and Learning Center and also includes an instructional designer, and STEM faculty. This planning committee met at least monthly during the academic year to plan the monthly meetings and de-briefed daily during the SPARCT May Academy. SPARCT has its own LMS page for participants. The co-PIs were expected to participate both years of the proposal with participation and then with qualitative and quantitative assessments. Recruit faculty through their faculty peers working with the program.

This project was funded by NSF-WIDER #1347640. The grant provided summer salary for 32 faculty participants and summer salary for some of the faculty planning committee (co-PIs and Sr. pers.). Other funds include travel funds for the participants to travel to present their results.

Notes and Tips

• Do work with your teaching and learning center. You will learn a lot from each other.
• Do work with your instructional design/e-learning team.
• Do keep a video record of participant progress during the course of the year. You will be fascinated.
• Do delegate as much as possible to co-PIs.
• Don't have too many co-PIs and Sr. personnel, some will be dead weight.
• Don't expect all participants to accomplish every goal.
• Scheduling meetings for planning and for FLCs is always difficult.

Evidence of Success

Regarding our first SPARCT cohort (2014), all sixteen of the faculty reported through video interviews that they have integrated an evidence-based practice into their targeted introductory STEM course, 10 of the 16 faculty engaged in SoTL activities based on their participation in SPARCT, and 93% of the faculty engaged in peer observation during year 1. The peer observations were well received by the participants and also made an impact on the participant's own pedagogical practice. All faculty video reports indicate that faculty perspective regarding their students had changed based on their observation experience. All participants shared changes they made to their own classroom procedures and use of more engaging practices as a result of their peer observation.
As of this report, we have completed two sessions of the SPARCT summer academy with our proposed two cohorts representing a diverse set of STEM disciplines and by June will have finished the second cohort. There are ~130 STEM faculty at the university who are in departments where STEM introductory courses are taught. Thirty-two of these faculty participated in SPARCT. This represents 25% of STEM faculty population at FGCU. According to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, at the end of this year, we will have reached well into the Early Adopters area which should have a significant effect on culture change.

Future Work

While the two years of grant support for faculty concluded in 2015, we were able to continue to support faculty and sustain the programming by offering a shorter SPARCT academy (16-hours) in 2016, 2017, and 2019 and host a faculty learning community for all SPARCT participants during those academic years as a way to sustain the work started by SPARCT.

Another interesting discovery: Our institution has fourteen Active Learning Classrooms (previously referred to as SCALE-UP) and about 25% of the STEM courses are taught in these classrooms. We discovered that almost none of the participants knew why these classrooms were designed the way that they are. We are working to make sure that all faculty understand the importance of the use of these rooms.

References and Accessory Materials

Results from 2014-2018 are published in The Journal of STEM Education

Frost, L., Goodson, L., Greene, J., Huffman, T., Johnson, B., Kunberger, T. (2018). SPARCT: A STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching", Journal of STEM Education, 19(1),5-12. https://www.jstem.org/jstem/index.php/JSTEM/article/view/2261

Yearly reports can be found at the website: https://www.fgcu.edu/cas/centers/whitaker/facultyresources#SPARCTProgram

Ref: Henderson, C., Beach, A., Finkelstein, N. (2011). Facilitating Change in Undergraduate
STEM Instructional Practices: An Analytic Review of the Literature. J. Coll. Sci. Teach. 48(8), p. 952-984.