National Academies:  Board of Education Research
Discussion on Promising Practices in STEM Education

Abstract

Numerous and varied teaching, learning, assessment, and institutional promising practices in undergraduate STEM education have been developed in recent years – many funded by NSF-- but little is known about their impact. The goal of this proposal is to begin to focus on the evidence of impact for a selected number of such promising practices. To do this the National Research Council (NRC) will facilitate two, one-day workshops which will be overseen by an independent steering committee appointed by the Chairman of the NRC. Each workshop will shed light on the state of knowledge on the selected STEM promising practices as well as suggest areas for additional research or where a major synthesis of existing research is needed. All of the conceptual work described in this proposal will be coordinated with and provide information and guidance to the work of another proposal being sent to NSF by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER).

Commissioned Papers

Papers listed below are attached at the bottom of this page. 

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A0_Linking Evidence and Learning Goals 

Susan Singer

A1_White Paper on Promising Practices in Undergraduate STEM Education

Jeffrey Froyd

A2_Practitioner Research as a Way of Knowing: A Case Study of Teacher Learning in Improving Undergraduates’ Concept Acquisition of Evolution by Natural Selection

Bruce Grant

A3_Learning Goals in Undergraduate STEM Education and Evidence for Achieving Them

Jose M. Mestre

A4_Chemistry in Context: Goals, Evidence, and Gaps (A White Paper)

Cathy Middlecamp

A5_Promising Practices in Undergraduate STEM Education 

Jeanne L. Narum

B01_Effectiveness of Problem-based learning 

David Gijbels

B02_Case Pedagogy in Undergraduate STEM: Research We Have; Research We Need

Mary Lundeberg

B03_Use of Complex Problems in Teaching Physics 

Tom Foster

B04_Concept Inventories in Higher Education Science 

Julie Libarkin

B05_Concept Inventories in Engineering Education 

Teri Reed-Rhoads

B06_Identifying And Addressing Student Conceptual Difficulties: An Example From Introductory Physics

Paula Heron

B07_The Rensselaer Studio Model for Learning and Teaching: What Have We Learned?

Karen Cummings

B08_The SCALE-UP Project: A Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs

Robert Beichner

B09_Tracking student problem-solving strategies in online PBL case discussions: a method to target interventions to individuals and groups most in need of help.

Marcy Osgood

B10_Less talk, more action: Active Learning in Introductory Geoscience courses

David McConnell

B11_The Role of Undergraduate Research in Student Retention, Academic Engagement, and the Pursuit of Graduate Education

Sandy Gregerman

B12_Evaluation of the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE) model of undergraduate research

Donald Wink and Gabriela Weaver

B13_The Impact of Future Faculty Professional Development in Teaching on STEM Undergraduate Education: A Case Study about the Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Donald Gillian-Daniel

B14_The Workshop for New Faculty in Physics and Astronomy 

Kenneth Krane

B15_Working with the Discipline – Developing a Supportive Environment for Education

Cathy Manduca

   

B16_Barriers and Promises in STEM Reform

Melissa Dancy and Charles Henderson

 

B17_Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Undergraduate Education: A Status Report

James Fairweather