Larger Funded Research Initiatives

Enhancing Critical Thinking in STEM Disciplines: A Faculty Development Model

This project is a National Science Foundation sponsored collaboration between the Searle Center and the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) to design, pilot and study a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty development program focused on improving higher order learning outcomes of STEM students. The pilot program consists of 20 STEM faculty – 11 from CCC and 9 from Northwestern - participating in a series of workshops over two years.

Goals of the project are for faculty to

• reflect critically on key issues in learning and teaching in higher education

• develop their learning, teaching, and assessment practices to facilitate higher order student learning outcomes

• improve STEM students’ higher order learning outcomes.

The project will be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness at CCC and Northwestern with respect to changes in (i) instructional and assessment practices, (ii) faculty approaches and conceptions of teaching, and (iii) student learning outcomes. In addition, the effectiveness of this program in promoting change in faculty approaches to teaching will be compared to the effectiveness of other faculty development programs.

(NSF: Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) award (DUE-0942404) $205,629 over 3 years)