WHAT? WHEN? HOW? CASE STUDIES EXPLORING EXPERIENCES MOTIVATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF REFORMED TEACHING BELIEFS AMONG FUTURE GEOSCIENCE FACULTY (Invited Presentation)

An instructor’s teaching beliefs contribute to whether they use research-validated teaching methods that have been shown to improve student learning. The next generation of professors will be drawn from today’s graduate students and post-docs but we know relatively little about their preparation to use research-validated teaching practices. We followed a broad population of geoscience graduate students and post-docs over a three year period to evaluate changes in teaching beliefs.

This study employed a longitudinal mixed-methods experimental design including surveys (BARSTL), short interviews (TBI), and longer case study interviews. We collected initial surveys from >600 participants and re-surveyed >300 of these participants 12-18 months later. We conducted an initial round of interviews with 61 participants and repeat interviews with 31 of these individuals. The data were examined to determine if there was a difference in beliefs about teaching based on factors including number of years in graduate school, teaching assistant (TA) experiences, gender, and participation in professional development. Data from the first two phases indicate that participation in teaching-related professional development was the experience that was most likely to result in more reformed pedagogical beliefs.

Finally, we conducted detailed case study interviews with ten participants who were either PhD students, post-docs, or beginning professors at the time of the interviews to determine what experiences led them to become interested in an academic career and contributed to the development of their teaching beliefs. The case study transcripts were analyzed using a grounded-theory approach to determine relevant themes that influenced teaching beliefs, interest in teaching, and interest in an academic career. A variety of important academic and personal experiences emerged, including effective mentoring from advisors and other faculty, interactions with students during teaching experiences, opportunities for participation in professional development, and the apparent autonomy of an academic career.