The University of Wyoming recently implemented a Learning Assistant (LA) program with the goal of supporting undergraduate students in traditionally lecture-based STEM courses. The authors performed a multi-method qualitative study utilizing a focus group and individual interviews in order to investigate the impact of the program's pilot year on…

Active learning has often been reported to improve student outcomes in STEM courses. However, there are barriers to its implementation, and it is challenging to include this approach in large classrooms with fixed seating. This investigation explores the development of a novel approach in which the class contact time was reallocated for a general…

Drawing is a teaching tool that provides numerous benefits to student learning, including enhanced knowledge retention, improved observation skills, and increased engagement with course content. However, these exercises also place high cognitive demands on students and require a considerable time commitment. To acknowledge and celebrate the effort…

Contribution: This study identifies the types of interaction that contribute to student learning with student-led tutorials (SLTs). The quality of these interactions include peer discussion, student tutor presentation, joint reasoning, and constructive feedback. Background: The introduction of SLTs in an advanced electromagnetics bachelor course…

Recent reform efforts in postsecondary science teaching have called for shifts in instructional methods to include more evidence-based instructional practices. However, a myriad of factors play a role in whether an instructor adopts these more student-centered methods. One such factor is teaching perspective. In this study, we explored the…

Large introductory science courses are a particularly important and challenging target for creating inclusive learning environments. In this study, we examined the impact of incorporating learning assistants (LAs) on the learning environment in an introductory biology course taught with two different structures: an in-person lecture with…

It has been well-establishing in the field of educational research that traditional educational methods such as passive lectures and labs where students follow pre-designed procedures to verify information already told to them are not effective for promoting meaningful and lasting conceptual understanding. Alongside this knowledge have come a…

In an effort to improve upon Calculus I instruction at our institution, we designed a pilot study that incorporated a variety of evidence-based classroom practices. The goal was not to formally test known successful teaching interventions. Rather, the purpose was to develop and identify course materials and instructional methods that would not…

This study explored students' perceptions of instructional practices of international teaching assistants (ITAs) who did and did not participate in additional professional development through a Teaching Methods course. The study also sought to understand the components of the Teaching Methods course that supported ITAs in inquiry-based chemistry…

In this study, we evaluate the impact of rehearsing teaching skills in a mixed-reality classroom simulator on graduate teaching assistants' (GTAs) instructional practices as well as undergraduate student learning outcomes. The simulator training is intended to provide GTAs opportunities to deliberately practice essential pedagogical skills that…

Early training opportunities for future faculty, namely graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, can better prepare them to use active learning approaches. We know that instructional feedback supports sustained change and motivates instructors to improve teaching practices. Here, we incorporate feedback as a key component of a pedagogical…

Across the nation, there is increasing national interest in improving the way mathematics departments prepare their graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) because of their integral role in teaching lower division mathematics courses, particularly within the Calculus sequence (Speer, Deshler, & Ellis, 2017). While there have been several studies…

The Mathematics for Computer Science mandatory course was conducted in a flipped classroom (FC) setting with an optional, voluntary, project-based learning (PBL) component. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of studying in an FC setting, with and without PBL, on students' problem-solving performance, conceptual understanding,…

In this case study, we use organizational development and change theory to look at how the University of Oklahoma (OU) has attended to the mathematical pathway leading to STEM fields. Using multiple sources of data, we are able to create an informative narrative that provides the particular context of the situation and in-depth picture of the…

This study investigated the implementation of best teaching practices by science graduate teaching assistants [GTAs] (3 chemists and 2 biologists) in five inquiry-based, interdisciplinary chemistry-biology experiments during a six-week professional development (PD) program, Engage PD. Additionally, we examined GTAs' experiences in implementing…