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The Tracer project website has not been significantly updated since 2011. We are preserving the web pages here because they still contain useful ideas and content. But be aware that they may have out of date information.

Improving Teaching, Improving Learning

The Tracer project investigates the effect of faculty development efforts at Carleton College and Washington State University on teaching and student learning in concrete, identifiable ways. The investigators will study Carleton College's Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge Initiative (QuIRK) and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs and Washington State University's 'Critical Thinking' (CT) and WAC programs to evaluate the success of faculty development in these three interdisciplinary programs, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods over a three year period (2009-2011). With this research, the investigators seek to create a model of faculty development (and theory of change) which can be utilized by a wide-range of higher education institutions. More about this project.

What's Going On

We are currently employing four types of research strategies:
  1. a collaborative research project with students on their learning, outside of the classroom Student Photo Survey;
  2. a study of "exemplar" faculty to understand the impact of faculty development on their teaching, through to student learning;
  3. a study of faculty development and teaching at Carleton (interviews and participant observation with faculty and staff); and
  4. quantitative analysis of faculty development participation and representation in student portfolios.

Contact

Please feel free to contact Gudrun Willett by phone (x4545), email (gwillett@carleton.edu), or stop in at the SERC office (200 Division St.) if you have any questions.

Funding

The Tracer project is funded by the Spencer Foundation in line with its goal to connect education research to concrete improvements in education and the broader society.