The Teaching Fellows Program at the University of Wisconsin, the model on which this project is based, provides an opportunity for future faculty to gain experience in teaching and to learn about learning during graduate school or while in a postdoctoral position. Each fellow enrolls in a course, "Teaching Biology", in which the instructors model the core practices of scientific teaching: active engagement of diverse students, regular assessment of learning, and redesign of classroom strategies based on data collected. The fellows experiment with their own methods and philosophies to achieve their own style of scientific teaching. The participants then engage in development and implementation of instructional materials, working in teams to design instructional materials and assessment instruments, improve the materials through an iterative process of review and revision, and teach them in undergraduate biology courses. After substantial evaluation and further review, the materials are disseminated on the web and in journal articles. The past 74 participants (55 of whom were graduate students and postdoctoral students) have developed a collection of innovative teaching materials on diverse topics in biology, which have been subjected to repeated peer and student review. Thus far, the materials have been used to teach 1,500 students in biology courses, and 17 "teachable units" have been posted online at the Scientific Teaching Digital Library (http://scientificteaching.wisc.edu/materials).
Intellectual Merit: The current project is developing a cohort of postdoctoral students to become enablers of institutional change during their postdoctoral and faculty years and then determining the outcomes of that effort. As they participate in the existing Teaching Fellows Program at the University of Wisconsin, the postdoctoral students are being given specific information on how to run similar courses and workshops. The impact of the program on the postdoctoral students, the professors in whose laboratories they are conducting research, the department in which they conduct their postdoctoral studies, and the department they join as faculty is being evaluated. The study includes 12 postdoctoral students who have already completed the program as well as three cohorts trained during the funding period, providing a sample of 30 postdoctoral students. Information from the study and the evaluation instruments being used are being shared with other research groups studying postdoctoral training programs.
Broader Impacts: This model program can be used broadly to provide postdoctoral students with the training in teaching that is needed to truly change college teaching and is a novel approach to helping departments change their approaches to undergraduate education.
