As Told By Melinda Lanius

Edited By Erin Moss, Co-Editor, DUE Point, Millersville University

Research demonstrates that evidence-based, inclusive pedagogical practices increase student success in STEM coursework.  The Inclusive Course Design for Enhancing Active Learning in STEM (IDEALS) project is designed to expand the knowledge base by investigating the impact of faculty professional development on student success and engagement in STEM courses.  IDEALS is a unique collaboration between PI Dr. Stephanie Shepherd, a geoscientist; Co-PI Dr. Lindsay Doukopoulos, the Associate Director of Auburn’s center for teaching and learning; and Co-PI Dr. Melinda Lanius, a mathematician. Below, Dr.Lanius describes her work on this project.  

What infrastructure within Auburn University and the College of Science and Mathematics supports active learning?  What challenges still remain for integrating active learning into STEM classrooms? 

Our college has a burgeoning culture of valuing and striving to create student-centered classroom experiences. Auburn University has invested millions of dollars in active learning classrooms, lecture halls, and laboratory infrastructure. Our center for teaching and learning (Biggio Center) has invested significant resources in their signature course design programs to prepare faculty to teach effectively in these classrooms. Our college leadership is committed to supporting faculty in the development of inclusive teaching practices and environments that lead to success for all students. Despite the wide range of campus resources and the overwhelming research on the effectiveness of active learning in supporting student success, these practices remain an unrealized ideal in many of our classrooms. We recognize the high demands on faculty that make it difficult to learn and implement unfamiliar teaching strategies. IDEALS is designed to strategically provide the required support to empower faculty to implement new teaching techniques. Our research aim is to better understand the impact of Professional Development on faculty beliefs and practices and to determine how what they learn in the PD actually results in changes in their classrooms. Additionally, we will study how those changes impact students’ sense of belonging, engagement and academic confidence.

What types of professional development will faculty receive as part of the project?

Auburn faculty will participate in a week-long course design seminar where they will work in teams with others in their department to design or redesign a course for greater inclusion and engagement in an active learning classroom. Faculty will be introduced to backward design (an approach to course development), inclusive pedagogy, and active learning instructional strategies. They will practice using these strategies in the seminar and have opportunities to receive feedback from their team and colleagues from other disciplines. Additionally, they will participate in ongoing monthly conversations with their team to discuss how their implementation is going, troubleshoot problems, and continue to build connection and community with their colleagues.

What forms of data do you intend to collect to answer your research questions?

• Teaching artifacts – syllabi, lecture slides/notes, assignments

• Faculty participants’ perceptions and prior experiences surveys

• Pre and post professional development interviews

• Classroom observations

• Students’ fitness tracker data and faculty’s indoor positioning data

The official start date of your project was May 2023.  What preliminary work did you have to do in order to be ready for the beginning of the Fall semester?  

We are using the Fall 2023 semester to learn from past participants in our course design seminars about what works and what could be improved given our goals. We are also doing research on some of the instruments we plan to use with our IDEALS cohorts to determine the impact of the PD on their teaching and beliefs about teaching. At the end of Fall 2023, we will launch the Call for Applicants for the IDEALS program at our university, and we will identify our first cohort in early spring. Spring 2024 will be used to collect baseline data. Summer 2024 is when professional development will begin, and the following academic year will be the post intervention data collection timeframe.  We anticipate revisiting our plans frequently once we are out of the initial design phase of the project!

Responses have been edited for clarity

Learn more about NSF DUE 2236315

Full Project Name: Inclusive Course Design for Enhancing Active Learning in STEM

Abstract: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2236315

Project Contact: Dr. Melinda Lanius, Co-PI; melinda.lanius@auburn.edu