This project is creating the foundation for a national network of local disciplinary Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) that use constructed response assessments in support of reformed teaching practices. It is building on prior work of the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group to create a disciplinary community of biology faculty from the five collaborating institutions who are interested in new methods of assessment and willing to use open-response assessments and automated analysis to inform their teaching.
The project is grounded in transformational learning theory and Senge's theory of organizational change and is facilitating wider adoption of these practices by creating hubs of practice: multiple faculty adopters contained in a single department/program. Each hub is supported by a lead faculty member, institutional administrator support, and a cross-institutional community of assessment users in several hubs. The project is building sustainability in the following ways: (1) creating local FLCs for professional development (PD) to support the use of these assessments and develop learner-centered materials in response to assessment reports; (2) connecting the local FLCs in a cross-institutional virtual community of instructors who use AACR questions, share materials, and where support emerges from the community itself; and (3) laying the foundation for expanding the FLC network in the future in which we will fully automate the analysis of AACR assessments, providing a roadmap for structuring support of transformed teaching and learning in Biology.
The project has three research objectives focused on faculty adoption and use of the assessments and institutional structures effect on faculty within the FLCs. They are investigating faculty members' attitudes about the AACR assessments and reports and their perception of the systemic structures that facilitate and impede sustained use. They are also determining the extent to which participation in the AACR FLCs impacts faculty's ideas about teaching and learning and what impacts sustained adoption of AACR tools.
The intellectual merit of this project lies in the improving STEM education through the use of valid and reliable instruments for providing insight into student thinking. Constructed response concept assessments have the potential to assess "big ideas" in STEM in a richer, more multi-faceted manner than multiple choice instruments. This project is providing insight into the factors that facilitate or impede faculty adoption and use of reformed teaching materials and practices. It is also providing the foundation for the future expansion of a national network of local FLCs and disciplinary-based virtual communities of practice that will have access to completely real-time, automated analysis of AACR assessment items, faculty developed teaching resources and support. Creation of a cross-institutional network of biology educators using the same assessments allows the discussion of significant issues in undergraduate science education.
The broader impacts of the project lie in the improvement of STEM educator development at the undergraduate level to increase recruitment and retention in STEM and provide enhanced infrastructure for research in teaching and learning and the education of undergraduates in STEM courses. It is laying the foundation for a national collaboration of science educators interested in using conceptual assessment tools. The inclusion and mentoring of postdoctoral research fellows and undergraduate research assistants in STEM education research work is further enhancing the infrastructure for research in teaching and learning. Finally, the project website is enabling a community of practice by allowing resource sharing and discussion.
