THE INVENTORY OF EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES AND THE INVENTORY OF GEOSCIENCE DEPARTMENT AND PROGRAM PRACTICES: TWO NEW INSTRUMENTS IN DEVELOPMENT FROM THE SAGE 2YC PROJECT

The Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education at Two-Year Colleges (SAGE 2YC) project is in the process of developing two inventories for use by geoscience educators, inspired and informed by the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) Vision and Change Rubrics, the CWSEI Teaching Practices Inventory, and 2016 national survey of geoscience faculty. The purpose of each inventory is two-fold: to assist geoscience educators in self-assessing their educational practices, and to provide a list of evidence-based practices for supporting the academic success of all students, broadening participation in the geosciences, and facilitating the professional pathways of 2YC students.

The Inventory of Educational Practices focuses on evidence-based practices that individual faculty members can implement, both within and outside of the classroom. It has sections of questions about how often faculty incorporate active learning strategies; how often students engage in doing what scientists do; how often faculty incorporate metacognitive, motivational, and scaffolding strategies in their teaching; what kinds of opportunities faculty tell students about; and what actions faculty take to support students’ professional pathways into the geosciences.

The Inventory of Geoscience Department / Program Practices focuses on evidence-based practices that geoscience departments or programs can implement. It has sections of questions about course and program design and assessment; attracting students to your program; fostering a sense of belonging; supporting and engaging a diverse population of students; facilitating students’ professional pathways into the geosciences; and departmental culture.

In constructing these inventories, we have borrowed from other surveys where appropriate and have written additional items as needed to address the SAGE 2YC project goals. Where we have written additional items, these are based on evidence-based practices from the research literature. Either instrument can be used to trace changes over time through multiple applications. We have piloted both instruments with nearly two dozen faculty members at more than a dozen two-year colleges.