Through this WIDER planning grant, UCLA creating a strategic action plan for the institution-wide adoption of student-centered, evidence-based teaching practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. A new STEM Education Steering Committee comprised of leadership from relevant academic and administrative departments is spearheading this initiative. The overarching goal of the Committee is to catalyze a campus-wide expansion in the adoption and practice of evidence-based teaching. Seven Sub-Committees are assessing current practices, identifying barriers, identifying best practices, understanding department-specific attitudes. Ultimately, the Sub-Committees are using this information to create a granular action plan for change informed by department-specific characteristics. As an integral part of the planning, members of the Steering Committee are working with campus leadership to leverage existing resources in support of cultural change and to address barriers such as campus teaching structures and/or lack of appropriate recognition systems for instructors who excel in the delivery of effective STEM instruction.
By creating a strategic plan to implement and sustain student-centered, active learning pedagogy, UCLA is demonstrating its commitment to confronting a nationally recognized problem and transforming institutional culture about the teaching enterprise. Project activities are having three major outcomes: 1) STEM faculty are using online teaching and assessment resources with increased frequency and effectiveness, 2) a professional development plan for STEM educators is being designed according to organizational change literature and attuned to the discipline- and/or department-specific teaching/assessment needs and constraints identified during campus inventory/assessment, and 3) department chairs and high level campus administrators are enabling improvements in teaching and learning by leveraging innovations within the faculty reward systems.
The insights gained from developing a change strategy and identifying processes for implementing this strategy at a large, research-intensive institution like UCLA, where institutional attitudes and policies sometimes introduce barriers that hinder undergraduate STEM education reform, is being shared widely to inform other research universities experiencing similar challenges. The change strategies created as a result of this planning grant are moving UCLA forward in terms of enhanced STEM student learning and retention, and participation of groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields.
