Journal article
Untangling a complex relationship: teaching beliefs and instructional practices of assistant chemistry faculty at research-intensive institutions
CHEMISTRY EDUCATION RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Vol.21(2), pp.513-527
04/01/2020
DOI: 10.1039/c9rp00217k
Abstract
In this era of instructional transformation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses at the postsecondary level in the United States, the focus has been on educating science faculty about evidence-based instructional practices, i.e. practices that have been empirically proven to enhance student learning outcomes. The literature on professional development at the secondary level has demonstrated a tight interconnectedness between ones' beliefs about teaching and learning and one's instructional practices and the need to attend to faculty's beliefs when engaging them in instructional change processes. Although discipline-based education researchers have made great strides in characterizing instructional practices of STEM faculty, much less attention has been given to understanding the beliefs of STEM about teaching and learning. Knowledge of instructors' thinking can inform faculty professional development initiatives that encourage faculty to reflect on the beliefs that drive their classroom practices. Therefore, this study characterized the interplay between beliefs and instructional practices of nineteen assistant chemistry professors. Luft and Roehrig's Teaching Beliefs Interview protocol was used to capture beliefs; classroom observations and course artifacts were collected to capture practices. Clear trends were identified between faculty's beliefs (characterized through constant-comparative analysis and cluster analysis) and practices (characterized with Blumberg's Learner-Centered Teaching Rubric). Overall, beliefs of most of the participants were somewhat aligned with their instructional practices, with the exception of one cluster of faculty who held student-centered beliefs, but received only moderate scores on the Learner-Centered Teaching Rubric.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Untangling a complex relationship: teaching beliefs and instructional practices of assistant chemistry faculty at research-intensive institutions
- Creators
- Maia Popova - University of North Carolina at GreensboroLu Shi - University of VirginiaJordan Harshman - Auburn UniversityAnnika Kraft - University of VirginiaMarilyne Stains - Charlottesville Medical Research
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- CHEMISTRY EDUCATION RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Vol.21(2), pp.513-527
- DOI
- 10.1039/c9rp00217k
- ISSN
- 1109-4028
- eISSN
- 1756-1108
- Publisher
- Royal Soc Chemistry
- Number of pages
- 15
- Grant note
- 1552448 / Direct For Education and Human Resources; Division Of Undergraduate Education; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF - Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) 1552448 / National Science Foundation CAREER; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2020
- Academic Unit
- Chemistry
- Record Identifier
- 9984934816402771
Metrics
1 Record Views