A Professional Development Handbook for New ... - ACS Publications

Chapter 2

A Professional Development Handbook for New Faculty Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on December 25, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 24, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1259.ch002

Dave Z. Besson,1 Penny J. Beuning,*,2 and Scott A. Snyder3 1Department

of Physics and Astronomy, 1082 Malott, 1251 Wescoe Hall Dr., University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, United States, and National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moskva, Russia 115409 2Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, 360 Huntington Ave., Northeastern University, Boston, Massachsetts 02115, United States 3Department of Chemistry, 5735 S. Ellis Ave., University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States *E-mail: [email protected].

New faculty and those who aspire to be faculty in the sciences may feel unprepared to teach and mentor students effectively. This issue motivated the writing of a handbook with the goals of offering advice to new faculty as well as summarizing some of the current research on effective teaching and pedagogical approaches. The text was compiled from our own experiences in developing and leading various courses with a diverse array of students as well as a survey of Cottrell Scholars, who are early-career faculty who have been recognized for high-quality research and education programs, on their experiences in teaching, mentoring, and outreach. Our overarching goal was to improve the experience for faculty and their students by conveying effective teaching and mentoring practices in a succinct, easy-to-digest format, and in a style that was intentionally personal. The book addresses issues such as developing new courses, teaching large lecture classes, engaging students, addressing misconceptions about teaching, and recruiting and effectively mentoring students at all levels. This chapter provides an overview of the book, a recapitulation of the original motivation and main points, and outlines some of the ways in which the book can be integrated into professional development activities. © 2017 American Chemical Society

Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Introduction

Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on December 25, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 24, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1259.ch002

By way of introduction, we offer the following vignette from one of the authors (D.Z.B.), which is similar to many of the vignettes that make up a portion of the text and provides context for the motivation for writing this book: I very distinctly recall, just after being hired at my current position, speaking during a coffee break at a conference with an individual who was five years my senior. This person had just gotten tenure and was describing to me her impressions of the job – “It’s almost absurd - the job combines two largely unrelated tasks (teaching and research), one of which you have basically no experience in and the other of which, despite what you may believe as a postdoc, you have only very limited relevant experience. The first day of my teaching, when I stepped in front of a large class, I suddenly and immediately had a sense of being woefully under-prepared. It’s gotten better since then - now I live in a state of constantly feeling only slightly under-prepared.” In truth, the job of being a faculty in the sciences at a university is somewhat more complicated than the description above, and, beyond teaching and research, also encompasses skills such as group management (i.e., leading others in their research), the art of gentle persuasion (i.e., grant-writing) and motivation on a large-scale, particularly when one is teaching a large, introductory lecture class. Given that gamut of responsibility and skillset, and recognizing that many new faculty feel overwhelmed and unprepared to teach and mentor effectively, especially while they face the concomitant pressure of establishing independent research programs, we sought to develop a succinct resource focused on effective teaching, mentoring, and outreach (1). Although there are a number of books on science teaching, some of which are focused on new faculty (2–6), few are directed towards these specific goals or provide advice in the form of the collective wisdom of this text in a format that is concise (i.e. can be read in the course of just a few hours). In addition, for those desiring more in-depth information on specific topics, the book includes an annotated bibliography of more than 100 references. Our own experiences have shown that teaching in the sciences presents some unique challenges. For instance, many science classes are organized as large lectures, a format that presents particular difficulties in terms of student engagement. Such large classes are often populated with students from a wide variety of majors possessing disparate backgrounds; many of these students might also be taking that science course to fulfill a requirement and, thus, may be resistant to the course goals or fail to see readily the relevance of the course. Finally, science courses often are paired with laboratories that ideally should be integrated with lecture content, adding another challenging element to an already crowded board of moving pieces and varied players. Thus, among the key goals of this book is to navigate these issues, in hopes of not only providing more effective teaching, but also increasing student engagement and interest in the subject at hand. 14 Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Motivation Although the training of Ph.D. students is often referred to as an apprentice model, in reality this training period does little to prepare science Ph.D. students to be college or university faculty. Unlike professions that actually follow a true apprentice model with close shadowing of practicing professionals, in our case, the situation is much different - one doesn’t apprentice or “shadow” a professional faculty member before entering the guild in all of the various roles that we play. This book was, therefore, an attempt to at least provide some type of a roadmap or “how-to” guide to junior faculty, offering both a general introduction as well as potential organizational avenues intended to increase efficiency. The book was also written realizing that the parameters defining the profession are currently changing at an unprecedentedly rapid pace. Taking advantage of the conveniences offered in this wiki age, we imagined this enterprise to be dynamic, with the ability for others to add impressions, corrections, and updates. Even over the limited time-scale required to write the book, the number and power of advertised teaching aids, for example, grew considerably. Collectively, we realize that many of the references to websites and technologies contained in the current text will likely be obsolete on a ten-year timescale; avoiding obsolescence for this effort will thus require similar updating. In surveying the body of literature that purported to have similar goals, we found many studies that measured, for example, the effectiveness of different pedagogical approaches. However, as one quickly realizes, such statistical analyses, although vitally important in their own right, paint only a partial picture. The in-class effectiveness of “clickers” or other student response systems in large lectures has, for instance, been studied and documented extensively over the last twenty years. What is generally missing from these studies is the personal experiences of teachers focusing on practical matters of implementation and lessons learned from new practitioners in their own inaugural attempts. This text was specifically intended as a complement to those statistical measures in hopes that it would provide a useful and personalized narrative that could speak directly to faculty of all stripes. The first, and most obvious question was how to organize and define the text material. To develop the content, we drew on our own experiences, those of our colleagues, and we surveyed Cottrell Scholars, who are faculty in the sciences who received Cottrell Scholar awards recognizing their excellence and leadership in both research and in education at primarily large, research-focused institutions. This program has recently been broadened to include faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions. We chose the Cottrell Scholars in part because they were familiar to us and with the project, and so were expected to be more likely to respond to a rather lengthy survey than a general group of college and university science faculty. Second, the Scholars represent a faculty cadre that have been selected, in large part, on the basis of their efforts to improve college-level education. Given the maturity of their collective thinking on the subject, we considered this group to be one with particularly valuable insights. As such, we had access to a select group of educators, ones who had already been identified by their exceptional classroom and laboratory skills. That fact 15 Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

notwithstanding, approximately half of the survey respondents reported that they received no advice or mentoring regarding teaching before they taught their first class.


Focus, Content, and Benefits Following the model outlined above, in terms of teaching for the first time, a good way to learn useful strategies is to watch effective teachers and to attend teaching workshops. Many professional societies offer rich resources, short courses, and hands-on workshops related to pedagogy. A number of other books provide concrete, practical advice with examples that can easily be incorporated into classes (2, 4). Once this groundwork is laid, courses should be designed around learning goals, which may be mandated by the institution, an accrediting body, or may be the goals of the faculty members. Such learning goals help provide structure and a clear framework to students, and provide a central theme that helps ground the course as a whole. Learning goals may go beyond mere content, such as communication skills, or developing scientific literacy in an era when it is perhaps more essential than ever to provide a broader context to the immediate course content. Assessments and benchmarks should be developed to determine how well learning goals are being met – there are now many online tools that are available in this regard. Effective teachers recommend being transparent about learning goals and strategies with their students, which generally increases student buy-in to the goals of the course. Instructors can also increase student buy-in and engagement by conveying enthusiasm and relevance. The importance of this last point cannot be overemphasized, as students will sense listlessness from the instructor in its absence. In this vein, giving real-world examples and showing the relevance of a course to other fields is essential, as it can also help engage non-major students. Large lectures present specific challenges in terms of keeping students engaged, managing classroom dynamics, and managing demands on the time of the instructor. Specific advice includes commanding respect by developing stage presence, dressing professionally, and practicing lectures in advance, including even recording portions of a few lectures and viewing them privately in order to work out problems a priori. Some institutions offer the capability of recording lectures and posting them on course management websites, which can be useful for students who may need to miss class. It has been definitively demonstrated that active student engagement with course material produces better learning outcomes (7). Although there are numerous ways to teach with technology that can lead to active learning by students, there are also many low- and no-tech ways to achieve the same ends. Students can work problems in class while instructor(s) circulate and answer questions, or can vote with their hands or a show of fingers for multiple-choice questions. The main advice is to use active learning methods seamlessly within a class; the instructor should actively engage and be positive about the classroom environment, and not try to make too many changes to a class or introduce too many active learning activities at once. There are many resources for activities 16 Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


that can adapted for specific classes; one excellent resource is the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College (8). The “Teach Better” book also contains an extensive annotated bibliography to point the reader to additional teaching resources in the literature; nearly all of the references included are from the primary, peer-reviewed literature (1). The main time-saving tips for teaching include taking good notes throughout the term about what worked and what should be changed, as well as any errors that should be corrected. In addition, administrative support, potentially in the form of teaching assistants or even peer mentors or work-study students, can help find resources, plan activities, maintain course web sites, take care of other administrative tasks, and, in very large introductory classes, provide a buffer between the faculty and the clientele. Instructors should also take advantage of the vast resources available for incorporating active learning into classes, rather than trying to invent every idea and activity de novo. Surveying effective teachers about their teaching revealed a number of creative practices that would not be obvious to many, even to experienced teachers. For example, inviting students to give feedback on the syllabus or to design their own grading scheme within certain parameters leads to better student buy-in. Allowing students to re-do the exam question on which they performed the worst rarely changes a grade but provides for deeper learning and increased student satisfaction. Having students debate specific experimental or instrumentation approaches to solve specific scientific problems can be fun and highly educational. Another example is a series of modules of “Facts that were Problems” in which ideas that are presented in textbooks as facts are actually probed as worked example problems in class; using data and figures from the primary literature adds a historical aspect and can be used to show students that science is in a constant state of flux. Additional examples, more details of these examples, and credit to the originators can be found in the full text (1). Assessment In general, several different types of assessments are better than one or two high-stakes exams during the semester and minimize student stress associated with single events, as well as providing opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency and effort. Having multiple assessments will generally encourage better study habits. Similarly, incorporating multiple assessments of instructor effectiveness, in particular mid-course evaluations, but including others as well, allows the instructor to assess what is working and address problems early. Student-Faculty Relationships Among the misconceptions that were highlighted was the expectation that students will automatically respect faculty. Faculty should set the tone for a positive, respectful environment by doing such things are being on time and prepared for class, returning work and giving feedback promptly, and explicitly stating expectations for classroom behavior. Another common misconception is that students are just like the faculty were when the faculty were students. Faculty 17


should be prepared for a range of preparation and motivation, and recognize that there are many things faculty can do to provide motivation and enthusiasm for learning on the part of students.


Mentoring Again, there are many excellent resources available related to mentoring students and other researchers (9–11). Recruiting and mentoring students is such an integral part of the faculty role and so crucial for faculty success that the book includes brief sections on mentoring researchers at all levels, from postdoctoral scholars to high school students, including staff such as technicians. This topic is especially important because many faculty have had no explicit training in mentoring, although more opportunities are becoming available for faculty professional development regarding mentoring tied to national initiatives (for example, National Research Mentoring Network, NRMN) (12). Our book includes discussion of recruiting students and other personnel as a new faculty member, establishing a research group environment and mentoring style(s), and dealing with difficult issues. Outreach For new faculty, engaging in outreach provides yet another outlet in which to share their excitement and enthusiasm for their field, and for many faculty, outreach activities are some of the most rewarding aspects of their professional responsibilities. In addition, outreach is a common way to fulfill requirements of some granting agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation. Thus, the book includes discussion of different types of outreach in which faculty might engage, ranging from K-12 to local businesses, as well as suggestions for maximizing effectiveness of outreach activities. In addition to satisfying a condition for a proposal, such programs often have dual benefits - for the precocious junior researcher, such programs can present an opportunity to explore opportunities otherwise not available at the K-12 level. For the PI, such programs present an opportunity to interact with a highly-motivated, and often exceptionally talented, student. Consequently, strategies for outreach are now generally required for faculty success. Moreover, such K-12 outreach, as well as outreach to the community-at-large serves to enhance scientific literacy and appreciation for scientific discovery at a time when an understanding of basic science and development of critical thinking skills are important to foster an informed citizenry. Finally, the book includes an extensive annotated bibliography of primary, peer-reviewed discipline-based education literature and review articles. The topics addressed range from cooperative learning to homework and other assessments of student learning to demonstrations and virtual laboratories. These resources provide further reading on a number of topics as well as distillations of the work cited. By design, the text clearly has use for faculty at all levels. Perhaps one of the most important uses for this book lies in the opportunity it presents to compare 18 Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


one’s own experience and impressions with those of colleagues - in particular, colleagues who have a well-deserved reputation for giving detailed consideration to their profession. For example, simply seeing in print that other science faculty, at all levels and in all sub-disciplines, similarly struggle with balancing teaching and research, or being able to objectively interpret course evaluations, or properly weighing their non-professional needs with faculty demands, provides some sense of shared experience and grounding. This facet, again, is one we hope is readily apparent in the personalized and anecdotal tone we intentionally set for the text. For those faculty with some experience, one ancillary benefit of the text is seeing the roadmap, touching on all the facets of a faculty job, fully laid out in detail. Many of the ideas that occur to one person likely have already been considered, and perhaps experimented with by another. Knowing that some particular strategy is likely to be a dead-end can be invaluable in saving time down the road.

Foundation for Professional Development A number of programs are available to help prepare graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for faculty careers (13) as well as to provide professional development for graduate students and new faculty. We have found the “Teach Better” book to be a useful tool to be used in these programs. The book can be used as part of the curriculum or simply be provided to participants as a resource. The full text of the book is available as a PDF download from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) web site (http://rescorp.org/about-rcsa/books). Hard copies are also available by contacting RCSA. Student Teaching Workshops/Teaching Assistant Training Although targeted to faculty, the book contains useful information for graduate teaching assistants as well. For example, whenever one of us (S.A.S.) is about to teach a large lecture class, the chapter on that section is passed out from the perspective of highlighting to students some of the concerns and objectives that the main instructor has, so that the teaching assistants can think about their own role and some of the same issues and challenges in properly engaging their students. In a recent session that supplemented part of the University of Chicago’s TA training program (14), copies of that same chapter and the entire book were provided in the same spirit. Future Faculty Workshops Workshops designed to prepare graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for the academic job search process and for faculty positions are sponsored by a number of universities and professional societies. These often focus on aspects of the job search process, such as preparing an effective curriculum vitae and research statement, and succeeding in the interview process. Many workshops also address issues important for success once the candidate has taken a position, addressing 19


topics such as managing research and researchers, obtaining funding, and teaching. The “Teach Better” book can be an integral part of these workshops, with its focus on teaching as well as on recruiting and mentoring researchers.


Faculty Professional Development Workshops Many campuses and professional societies organize professional development workshops for faculty, often focusing on new faculty. One example is the New Faculty Workshop organized by the Cottrell Scholar Collaborative and the American Chemical Society (see Chapter 3 in this volume on the CSC New Faculty Workshop) that targets chemistry faculty in the first year or two of their faculty appointments. Local efforts can be just as useful. For instance, as part of its faculty development programming, Northeastern University sponsors an annual workshop on Establishing a Research Program, co-led by P.J.B., which incorporates many of the issues related to recruiting and mentoring students in the “Teach Better” book (each participant is also given a copy of the book in the course of the workshop). Similarly, in lunch-based meetings and local workshops on the faculty experience and the particulars of initiating a research laboratory, S.A.S. has provided copies to participants, as well.

Future Directions This book was written, in part, to recognize the dynamism apparent in the multiple aspects of the faculty role in teaching, research, and outreach, and to anticipate how, generally speaking, these demands might evolve in the future. As noted above, the rate at which the teaching profession evolves is likely to continue to accelerate in the next 5–10 years. This suggestion is, in part, a result of the increasing scrutiny being given to, and the growing number of tools available for, assessment of teaching effectiveness in STEM fields, which has resulted in a growing recognition of science teaching as a sub-discipline unto itself. The skill set required for success in research and teaching, and attracting, retaining, and mentoring students, not only requires adaptation to and rapid assimilation of new technologies, but is also subject to understanding changing priorities and adapting to new research. Within the last 1-2 decades, increasing numbers of dedicated faculty positions, funding opportunities, and journals devoted to discipline-based pedagogy have emerged. In concert, and given the inevitable evolution of research directions, methods and priorities, the dynamic challenges associated with faculty (in all disciplines) imply that, to avoid obsolescence, this handbook will, in some form, require periodic updating. The ease of access to a myriad of online tools should facilitate this task in the future. To date, about 500 hard copies of the book have been distributed. We encourage continued use of, and feedback about, the book in interactive workshops for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty.

20 Waterman and Feig; Educational and Outreach Projects from the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative Professional Development ... ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Acknowledgments We thank Research Corporation for Science Advancement and especially Silvia Ronco, Richard Wiener, and Kathleen Parson for support of this project. Ingrid DeVries Salgado contributed the majority of the annotated bibliography in the “Teach Better” book.

References


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Beuning, P. J.; Besson, D. Z.; Snyder, S. A. Teach Better, Save Time, and Have More Fun: A Guide to Teaching and Mentoring in Science with an annotated bibliography by Ingrid DeVries Salgado; Research Corporation for Science Advancement: Tucson, AZ, 2014. Ambrose, S. A.; Bridges, M. W.; DiPietro, M.; Lovett, M. C.; Norman, M. K. How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching; Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA, 2010. Davidson, C. I.; Ambrose, S. A., The New Professor’s Handbook: A Guide to Teaching and Research in Engineering and Science; Anker Publishing, Wiley: Bolton, MA, 1994. Handelsman, J.; Miller, S.; Pfund, C., Scientific Teaching; W. H. Freeman: New York, 2006. Noor, M. A., You’re Hired! Now What?; Sinauer Associates, Inc.: Sunderland, MA, 2012. Wankat, P. C., The Effective, Efficient Professor: Teaching, Scholarship, and Service; Allyn and Bacon: Boston, MA, 2002. Freeman, S.; Eddy, S. L.; McDonough, M.; Smith, M. K.; Okoroafor, N.; Jordt, H.; Wenderoth, M. P. Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2014, 111, 8410–5. The Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. http:// serc.carleton.edu (accessed December 28, 2016). Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering; National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 1997. Barker, K., At the Helm: Leading Your Laboratory, second ed.; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 2010. Handelsman, J.; Lauffer, S. M.; Pribbenow, C. M.; Pfund, C. Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists; W.H. Freeman: New York, 2009. National Research Mentoring Network. https://nrmnet.net/ (accessed December 28, 2016). Heller, R. S.; Mavriplis, C.; Sabila, P. S., Forward to Professorship in STEM: Inclusive Faculty Development Strategies that Work; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 2016. Dragisich, V.; Keller, V.; Zhao, M. An Intensive Training Program for Effective Teaching Assistants in Chemistry. J. Chem. Ed. 2016, 93, 1204–1210. 21


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