Preparing the Future STEM Faculty: The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning

Abstract

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) seeks to enhance excellence in under-graduate education through development of a national STEM faculty committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse learners. Graduate education is a powerful leverage point to develop such a national faculty; nearly 80% of all U.S. Ph.D.’s are trained at only 100 research universities. CIRTL has developed, implemented, and evaluated strategies that prepare future faculty for careers that integrate research, teaching, and learning based on three core ideas: teaching-as-research, learning communities, and learning-through-diversity. Evaluation shows that the learning outcomes of high-engagement CIRTL participants reflect research-based, high-impact teaching practices, while longitudinal studies indicate that they use the knowledge and skills they gained from teaching development in subsequent undergraduate teaching. Currently the CIRTL Network comprises 22 major research universities.