College STEM Faculty Teaching Practices The Influence of a Professional Development

Abstract

In this paper, we present the influence of a professional development (PD) including a faculty learning community (FLC) on STEM faculty teaching practices at a southern US liberal arts college. We used a quasi-experimental mixed-method design to collect information about teaching practices and the influence of the professional development. The Reformed teaching observation protocol (RTOP) was used to evaluate the faculty teaching strategies. The RTOP ratings indicated that most faculty used some sort of active strategies. Further, faculty who attended the professional development had significantly higher RTOP scores than their counterparts. Results from interviews show that faculty were willing to make changes to their teaching approaches based on the workshop. Results from this study contribute to the knowledge base describing the influence of professional development on STEM college faculty teaching strategies.