Science AMA Series: We are a group of science educators & researchers, and we're talking about what university STEM teaching looks like. AUA!

Abstract

Hi Reddit! We are part of a big cross-university team that has been investigating what teaching practices are taking place in university classrooms. We attended and documented over 2,000 classes taught by more than 500 STEM faculty members across 25 institutions... that's a LOT of hours spent going to class, and we are happy to talk about what we saw. From our observations, we analyzed the time spent on various teaching practices (both instructor and student behaviours) and published our findings in Science. In a nutshell: There's lots of traditional lecturing going on, but there is a huge variety in what university teaching looks like! Joining today, on behalf of the whole team: Dr. Marilyne Stains (MS; @MarilyneStains) - Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My work focuses on closing the gap between research & practice in university STEM education. Dr. Jordan Harshman (JH; @theonlyletteR) - Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University. My research primarily revolves around identifying effective practices in science graduate education. Dr. Megan Barker (MB; @meganbarkerase) - Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University; former postdoctoral fellow of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia where we did some of this work. I'm interested in first-year experiences in biology, and teaching assistant training. Dr. Stephanie Chasteen (SC; @sciencegeekgirl) - Research Associate at the University of Colorado Boulder. I'm interested in faculty development and institutional change. Dr. Renee Cole (RC; @ChemCole) - Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. I am interested in issues related to how students learn chemistry and how that guides the design of instructional materials and teaching strategies, as well as how to effectively translate discipline-based research to the practice of teaching. Dr. Stanley Lo (SL; @stanleylo302) - Assistant Teaching Professor of Biological Sciences and of Math and Science Education at the University of California San Diego. My research looks at faculty beliefs and how these beliefs inform teaching and influence student learning. We're excited to be here today, and happy to talk about our analysis and findings, as well as a broader discussion of undergraduate STEM education, discipline-based education research, evidence-based teaching practices, and where your classroom could (or should?) be going. We would love to talk with people from all backgrounds - researchers, students, instructors, parents, and anyone else interested. We'd love to hear your questions and perspectives! The paper (behind a paywall): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6383/1468.full The press release (free): https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/lesson-learned-massive-study-finds-lectures-still-dominate-stem-ed/ Featured by Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180329141007.htm -------------- Edit ------------------- Signing off for now, but feel free to post further questions and we'll answer them when we have a chance. Thanks for all the questions and contributions! Please do keep the conversation going -- you can reach out to us on twitter above. This was fun!