Notes from the HERI STEM Conference (UCLA)

In the next few days, I will be attending the HERI (Higher Education Research Institute) Workshop on STEM teaching on the college level (hosted by UCLA). The workshop leaders have suggested several articles for participants to read before the conference. Here are my notes from one of those readings - I hope you find them useful!

"Changing the Culture of Science Education at Research Universities" - Anderson, W. A., et al. 2011

This reading addresses the well-established anti-teaching attitude apparent at many universities. Especially at large research universities, it is obvious to teachers and graduate students that research is the primary objective, and teaching is something you "have to do." (and you should try and weasel your way out of teaching if at all possible to procure more time for research). To drive that point home, many universities offer fewer teaching responsibilities as a reward for excellence in research.

Here's the problem with that system, as I see it: most faculty reach tenure status without ever taking a course or even a workshop in formal teacher training. Practically none have ever taken a course on STEM education, specifically. The only time they can improve their teaching skills is by practicing the by teaching and developing undergraduate courses. However, unless they are self-motivated, there is little incentive for them to spend a significant amount of their time teaching or lesson planning, since research is the number one priority. The result is a highly respected research university where the undergrads are being taught by very talented researchers, but somewhat sub-par teachers. This is no fault of the faculty themselves - they are only playing the reward system in place at their university (although some truly dislike teaching).

While the problem may be obvious, the solution is definitely not so. This article presents a straightforward set of steps universities can take to change the attitude of faculty and administration towards STEM teaching.

Life in the Universe: The Status Quo

As a part of my thesis project (which will focus on the evolution of debris disks around young stars), I will be creating a new course at UCLA which could be used to satisfy a general education requirement for Astrobiology. The class currently in place (Astro 5 - Life in the Universe) was developed in part by my advisor (Ben Zuckerman) for non-majors to fulfill a quantitative reasoning requirement. I want to adapt the course material into a new debate-based course which will make use of the "Reacting to the Past" framework.