Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR)

Overview

<p>The IUSE: EHR program supports projects designed to contribute to a future in which all undergraduate students are fully engaged in their STEM learning. The IUSE: EHR program promotes <strong>(1)</strong> Engaged Student Learning: the development, testing, and use of teaching practices and curricular innovations that will engage students and improve learning, persistence, and retention in STEM, and <strong>(2)</strong> Institutional and Community Transformation: the transformation of colleges and universities to implement and sustain highly effective STEM teaching and learning.</p> <p>All projects supported by IUSE: EHR must:</p> <ul> <li>Demonstrate a strong rationale for project objectives or incorporate and build on educational practices that are demonstrably effective</li> <li>Contribute to the development of exemplary undergraduate STEM education</li> <li>Add to the body of knowledge about what works in undergraduate STEM education and the conditions that lead to improved STEM teaching and learning</li> <li>Measure project progress and achievement of project goals</li> </ul> <p><span style="font-size:1em">To accomplish these goals, IUSE: EHR projects may focus their activities at any level, including the student, faculty, institutional or community5 levels. Development, propagation, adaptation, and transferability of evidence-based practices are also important considerations. Projects should consider designing materials and practices for use in a wide variety of institutions or institutional types. Topics of interest to the IUSE: EHR program include, but are not limited to, the following: </span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:1em">Development and study of the efficacy of innovative teaching and learning practices and resources </span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em">Development, testing, and dissemination of instruments for measuring student outcomes </span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em">Efforts to increase the diversity of the STEM workforce including K-12 teachers and/or the faculty and institutions engaged in work to improve undergraduate STEM education</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em"> Faculty professional development to increase the use of evidence-based teaching practices </span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em">Implementation of and research on sustained change processes involved in adopting evidence-based and effective instruction within or across departments, disciplines, or institutions </span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em">Efforts to achieve STEM educational goals through innovative partnerships, for example with community organizations, local, regional, or national industries, centers for teaching and learning, professional societies, or libraries</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:1em"> Propagating and sustaining transformative and effective STEM teaching and learning through institutional practices or involvement of professional societies </span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-size:1em">IUSE: EHR also welcomes proposals to conduct workshops and conferences aimed at improving undergraduate STEM education, developing implementation practices, and/or assembling research partnerships and agendas. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:1em">All IUSE: EHR projects are expected to increase knowledge about effective STEM education. <strong>This may be achieved through posing one or more research questions that will be answered through the course of the study or through evaluation of project activities, impacts, or outcomes</strong>. Projects should include a well-designed plan to gather data and should specify methods of analysis that will be employed to answer the questions posed and mechanisms to evaluate success of the project. Projects should also specify strategies for generating and using formative and summative assessment of project processes, outputs, and/or outcomes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:1em">The IUSE: EHR program strongly encourages collaboration among disciplinary instructors, departmental and institutional administrators, and educational researchers in the design and implementation of a project. Transferability and propagation are important aspects for IUSE: EHR-supported efforts and should be addressed throughout a project's lifetime. Dissemination plans should ensure that resources and findings from the project are accessible for multiple audiences, such as researchers and educators. Ultimately, results and findings from IUSE: EHR projects are expected to contribute to EHR’s larger themes focusing on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation and institutional capacity in STEM, and/or STEM professional workforce development. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:1em">The IUSE: EHR program recognizes that putting existing research-based practices into place may be the most important local need for improving undergraduate STEM education. Consequently, conceptual replication or adaptation studies are encouraged to foster propagation of evidence-based STEM teaching and learning approaches in new environments. </span></p>