Data-driven work in Yale's CTL
Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) relies on collaborative partnerships with many other units in campus, including the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Yale College Dean's Office, and all professional schools. For our STEM education initiatives in particular, we have an important partnership with the Office of Institutional Research. In recent years the institution has paid more attention to recruiting students interested in pursuing STEM degrees. During the same period, we committed to addressing low student satisfaction with introductory science courses and lack of high quality STEM courses for non-majors.
The former Center for Scientific Teaching (CST) at Yale was first directed by Professor Jo Handelsman. Dr. Jennifer Frederick assumed leadership when Handelsman was appointed to work on the Obama administration as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Training institutes and ongoing support provided by the CST facilitated a number of interventions and curricular transformations in introductory STEM courses in biology, math, physics, chemistry, and statistics. During this period, Yale University launched a set of summer bridge programs. The Freshman Scholars at Yale (FSY) initiative provides a residential experience for at-risk students before their first semester. The Online Experiences for Yale Scholars (ONEXYS) program is a scalable online pre-calculus course that blends individual work, team-based problem solving in cohorts guided by a Yale student, and orientation to transitional and social aspects of life as a Yale College student. With all of these interventions taking place in different campus units, the need for coordinated outcomes analysis is high.
When the CST was dissolved and reorganized into the campus-wide Center for Teaching and Learning in 2014, the spirit of "scientific teaching" was preserved as a central pillar of the new CTL's mission. Assessment and evidence-based action were built into the organization as values of high priority. CTL is adding professional assessment staff and building upon efforts of the evaluation research team funded through STEM education awards from NSF and HHMI. Our focus is now trained upon analyzing the impact and student outcomes of our efforts to transform introductory STEM education. Departments recognize the importance of this approach and welcome assessment support from CTL. This work is aided by a critical partnership with the Office of Institutional Research, which has recently gained experienced leadership from a new administrative hire.
To operationalize this partnership, the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Analysis and Institutional Research meets regularly with the Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. We include appropriate staff members depending on the project of interest. In addition to formulating a coordinated approach to analyzing outcomes of ongoing interventions and experiments in gateway STEM courses, regular communication means that we can now build OIR support into new initiatives in the development stage. With this partnership, we will ensure that data collection mechanisms are identified early in project life cycles to be formative. Collaborating on data analysis for strategic initiatives contributes to a STEM education approach that is informed by local evidence.
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Center Profile: Yale University Center for Teaching and Learning - Yale University