Through this WIDER planning grant, the University of South Florida (USF) is developing a comprehensive and feasible implementation plan for a faculty-directed program of interventions that will increase undergraduate student persistence and success in STEM courses and enhance STEM degree production, particularly among Hispanics, African-Americans, and women. To do so, USF is creating strategies to secure adoption of evidence-based STEM teaching practices customized for three distinct groups: tenure-line and tenured faculty; contingent faculty; and graduate teaching assistants. The Transforming STEM Teaching in a Large Urban-Serving University (TST@USF) project uses a top down/bottom up convergence model to provide leadership that is shared by administrators and faculty. This model assures buy-in by faculty and support and resources by the administration. The work plan includes a comprehensive data-based analysis of current student outcomes, faculty practices, and system supports and barriers. It advances knowledge of evidence-based STEM teaching practices and of leadership for change, and establishes a shared vision and commitment to implementation.
TST@USF is developing a plan to establish a highly replicable set of strategies that will lead faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants to use teaching practices whose effectiveness in retaining students in the STEM disciplines is documented by past research evidence. TST@USF places special emphasis on Hispanic, African-American, and female students whose STEM participation rate is considerably lower than that of white males. It is achieving project goals by employing a model of leadership for change that is shared between faculty and administrators.
