Systemic Transformation of Education through Evidence-based Reform (STEER)

Gerrry Meisels, University of South Florida

Program Description

STEER seeks to create a culture that reflects a strong balance between teaching and research, and values both. STEER promotes the adoption of evidence-based teaching practices in all science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, especially in the large-enrollment gateway courses. To facilitate systemic change, the University of South Florida (USF) and Hillsborough Community College (HCC) are partnering to offer professional development for faculty and strengthening coordinated student advising, because the number of STEM community college students transferring to USF exceeds the number who began their studies at USF. STEER's comprehensive approach also addresses other factors that may influence students' academic experiences, such as graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training, student advising, course alignment, institutional policies related to teaching, and physical infrastructure such as classroom configuration.
This effort is supported in part by the National Science Foundation, grant number DUE1525574.

Program Purpose

In research intensive universities, reward structures that include tenure and promotion are mostly based on research performance. This results in faculty not dedicating much time to learn, develop, and implement teaching beyond the traditional lecture format. This traditional approach tends to discourage students from pursuing a STEM major. Yet our nation needs a STEM competent workforce. Therefore, we need to develop and employ strategies that create a balance between the research university's roles as generators of new knowledge and as providers for the workforce the needed numbers of STEM-knowledgeable college graduates.

To achieve lasting change, we pursue a comprehensive and mutually supportive set of institutional, departmental, and individual strategies that increase the value attached to effective teaching and will attract students to learning in STEM. Strategies to achieve STEER's goal include:
- a distinguished Advisory Board, and monthly seminars presented and facilitated by national leaders in STEM education and institutional change, are used to educate faculty and especially the STEER leadership team about practices and approaches that have been proven to be effective. We benefit substantially from the analyses and reports from our external evaluators, Horizon Research.
- departmental faculty retreats, interdisciplinary faculty retreats, leadership of Faculty Learning Communities, support of course redesign that emphasizes use of evidence-based practices, a program to support faculty attendance at national subject area meetings with a strong education component, and an awards program for faculty and instructors who have adopted evidence-based practices.
- an analysis of institutional factors that can encourage use of evidence-based and active learning practices, such as promotion and tenure criteria, effective teaching evaluation, and classroom configuration.
- training of GTAs that provides components common to all STEM departments, and parts that are specific for each department, and
- a special advising program for HCC transfer students to help create a seamless transition.

Program Goals

Our goals are four-fold:
- to increase the respect and value attached to teaching in the STEM departments of a research-intensive university,
- to improve the delivery of courses, especially in the large gateway courses, through adoption of evidence based practices by faculty and instructors that teach gateway courses.
- to focus advising, and other support processes, on encouraging and facilitating students to pursue a STEM major.
- to increase the number of USF graduates that are well prepared in one of the STEM disciplines.

Program Activities

frequent feedback from informed outsiders and peers, continuous awareness of overall goals and the extent to which progress towards achieving them is made. Specifically, we employed the following steps.
- Identify and free time (reduce course load) for a project leader/PI to make this project his/her principal assignment, and provide part-time support staff
- Create a strong and respected leadership team of 10 to 15 members that is widely representative of faculty, administrator, and staff. Include chairs, faculty, staff (such as advisors and Teaching and Learning Center personnel) and members of college (such as Associate Deans of A&S) and central administration (such as Vice Provost).
- Allocate time to plan actionable items and budget appropriately. Planning incurs costs, such as for organizing meetings and for disseminating work via multiple modes of communication. Therefore, carefully project what needs to be done, and who will do what, To fulfill the overall vision, details should be considered as well.
- Build a common vision among the leadership team. We used a seminar program with outstanding speakers who provided insights into effective change ideas and how to implement them. We found the speakers to be very effective. A knowledgeable and experienced advisory board is also very helpful.
- Identify specific component parts of the action plan and form groups of two to four leadership team members to develop and implement each of them.
- Schedule regular meetings, and ask each subgroup to report on their progress. STEER's leadership team meets biweekly for 1-1/2 hours.
- Remain aware of the broader picture and objectives partly through continuation of the seminar series.

STEER pays for one month of summer salary for all its 9-month faculty on the leadership team, 3/4 of the PI's 12-month salary, a full-time STEER implementation coordinator, and ½ of a staff assistant. Participants of retreats receive support directly through a small sum based on the number of hours allocated for the retreat. The total time needed depends on the number of participants and the type of activities in which they will engage. However, significant institutional support and the sense that this is important to the university are essential to retain everyone's commitment. STEER is supported by USF, HCC, and the National Science Foundation, grant number DUE1525574.
Equally or even more important is a history of institutional moves and collaborations on improving the teaching of STEM. At USF, this history in a STEM department goes back to over 20 years; and includes collaboration with several individuals now on the STEER leadership team.

Notes and Tips

DO's
Take your time planning
keep the leadership meetings flowing (time on task)
Make sure the leadership team feels ownership
Ensure that leadership is distributed. (Remember that it is amazing what can be done if you don't care who gets the credit.)
Keep a high profile in the university.
DON'Ts
Compress your time scale too much
Don't allow personal self-interest to become too dominant
Don't expect departments to be enthusiastic about changing a system by which they have lived for decades

Evidence of Success

STEER is in the middle of the second year. The cost of the seminar program has been transferred from the NSF grant to the university base budget through the Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Interdisciplinary faculty retreats have resulted in a curricular and content alignment between gateway courses in Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry, and to the redesign of six introductory courses in these fields. Four faculty were recognized as USF STEM Scholars, and 9 faculty members were funded to attend national education-focused meetings in the first year, and 10 in the second year. The analysis of institutional policies that affect encouragement of adopting evidence-based practices has been completed. A manual for GTA training was created, and is used in the four-day program for GTA's that includes segments for all STEM GTAs (morning) and separate sessions by department (afternoon). Additionally, transfer peer advisors have been selected and trained. They have begun to meet with HCC students planning to transfer in one of the STEM fields in the USF Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, and at the new STEM Transfer Center at HCC.

Future Work

The strategies described earlier will continue to be pursued, and refined on the basis of experience. External evaluators will conduct case study interviews to lay a baseline against which future progress can be measured. Regarding institutional policies, we will develop recommendations for changes, and will share the recommendations with individuals in a position to make decisions, and that can advocate for them. The sub-group focused on successful approaches to increase participation of underrepresented groups, will design program components to help with the adoption of culturally relevant pedagogies.

References and Accessory Materials

Additional information can be found at the STEER web site, http://www.usf.edu/atle/steer/