Multidisciplinary (99) This project is built around a workshop for faculty and professional society representatives from 10 disciplines in order to develop, integrate, and disseminate instructional resources to community college faculty and professional societies. This set of activities builds on the extensive experience of the three PIs in conducting workshops in their discipline (economics, social sciences, and geosciences). The project is leveraging the expertise and capacity of the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. SERC is a resource that provides expert technical support for web-based instructional materials and improved undergraduate STEM education.
In nearly all STEM disciplines, community college faculty teach a large proportion of the students in the US who are taking introductory level courses. Therefore, community college faculty serve as points of attraction and as gatekeepers for student interest in STEM disciplines. However, community college faculty are much less likely than faculty in four year institutions to use teaching and learning resources available from professional associations and organizations such as the National Science Foundation. Typically community college faculty are a small proportion of membership in professional organizations, less likely than instructors from other institutions to attend regional or national meetings, and often entirely unrepresented on professional committees, even those related to teaching. There have been some notable efforts in some disciplines to support community college instruction, activities that have been little noticed outside of these disciplines Consequently, there is much that community college representatives and their advocates can learn by looking to other disciplines, in particular how professional organizations have attempted to address the critical issues facing community college faculty. These include: pressures to serve underprepared students; limitations imposed by resource-poor institutional settings; and isolation of faculty in small departments, The project organized a 2012 workshop for STEM discipline educators who had demonstrated prior commitment to enhancing community college instruction. (See http://serc.carleton.edu/2yc/fall2012/index.html ) Participants shared their experiences, created a personal action plan and worked with the project co-principal investigators on a revised project website portal and a set of materials appropriate for faculty development activities at individual colleges. One year later these efforts were evaluated by the Science Education Resource Center. In every discipline (biology, chemistry, economics, engineering, English, geography, geoscience history, mathematics, political science, psychology, and sociology) participants reported progress in achieving the project goals. All had initiated new outreach to community college faculty, attributable at least in part to this project. The efforts varied, including new regional conferences, webinars on teaching in community colleges, surveys of community college faculty, sessions at national meetings, expanded undergraduate research programs, an ongoing consortium of Washington, DC area professional staff and new funding proposals. Although the evaluation found limited use of the project website after the workshop, it was valued as a repository of information, providing evidence of successful community college outreach efforts. Participants reported increased willingness by four-year institutions and professional associations to support and value outreach efforts to two-year college faculty, prompted by widespread recognition that community college transfer students are an important and growing source of STEM discipline majors. Despite such progress, participants noted a range of barriers in implementing their action plans. In particular, professional association culture, rules, dues structures, meeting location and fees continued to hamper outreach to community college faculty.
