U Nebraska Lincoln Prof Lands NSF Grant To Study STEM Teaching
A University
of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) assistant
chemistry professor will receive nearly $1 million over the next five
years to
study the way science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are
taught in
universities and seek ways to improve it.
Marilyne
Stains will receive the $941,174 Faculty
Early Career Development Program Award from the National Science Foundation. The
awards typically go to pre-tenure faculty who exemplify the role of
teacher-scholars.
Stains
has already done substantial research on
the subject, developing and conducting education workshops to train UNL
faculty
in new teaching methods. She said she believes the grant will allow her
to
launch a study that should lead to better understanding of what faculty
already
know about new educational strategies, their beliefs about teaching and
other
factors that influence teaching methods.
"There's
a growing recognition that we have been
developing all of these new instructional strategies that we know are
more
effective, but STEM faculty aren't using them," Stains said. "Now there
is an
interest in training faculty."
Her
goal is to improve faculty education
workshops and provide individualized follow-up with faculty research
participants, offering suggestions and feedback on their teaching.
Stains will
also develop a teaching specialization program in the UNL chemistry
department
for graduate students that will prepare them to teach college-level
science courses
more effectively.
"The
ultimate goal is for faculty to implement
these practices that we know increase retention of students in STEM
fields,"
she said. "We have to understand the gaps in their knowledge so that we
can
target their needs more specifically and effectively."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.