The chief importance of this project is its impact on increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degrees awarded at U.S. universities. The nation needs a sufficient number of STEM-degree holders, who possess technical skills that are crucially important for the nation's economic health and growth. Unfortunately, too many potential STEM majors are currently lost because of poor experiences in introductory university STEM courses. This project aims to improve dramatically the retention of students in STEM majors by propagating widely (by means of a national workshop) "best practices" for preparing high-quality instructors of key introductory STEM courses.
Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are the primary instructors in laboratories and recitations in large lecture STEM courses; however, GTAs are often inadequately prepared to apply cutting-edge, evidence-based pedagogies necessary for excellent STEM instruction and, thereby, enhanced STEM-major retention. The goal of this project is widespread improvements to GTA preparation in introductory physics and chemistry courses via propagating GTA professional development programs. In a workshop, planning teams from Ph.D.-granting physics and chemistry departments will devise customized, realistic GTA professional development plans by interacting with each other and with world-class experts on best practices for GTA support. Twenty STEM departments will develop plans; each implemented plan will benefit 15 new GTAs annually, who then interact with 900 new undergraduates. Thus, the propagation of best practices by this workshop should impact positively approximately 13,500 new undergraduates each year.
