PEER REVIEWED PEDAGOGY AND THE QAIT MODEL: A TEACHING FRAMEWORK FOR CLASSROOM SUCCESS

As geoscience educators, it is imperative we make our courses relevant and engaging for students in higher education if we are to meet future labor demands in STEM fields and to produce citizens who are knowledgeable about the role and scope of science in our world. Research on educational pedagogy has made significant progress over the years; however, effective instruction is more than just ‘good’ teaching. Good teaching is characterized, in part, by clear objectives for students' learning, significant connections between material learned, and the content assessments utilized. Research by Slavin (1995), shows that in order for students to learn educational material, classroom pedagogy is reliant upon the plethora of choices teachers incorporate into instruction. In his model, called QAIT, Slavin proposed a teaching framework that emphasized alterable elements of instruction that teachers have direct control over such as (Q) quality of instruction, (A) appropriate level of instruction, (I) incentive for learning, and (T) time allocated for instruction. The QAIT model is helpful to instructors as they make decisions regarding classroom content and pedagogy to ensure students learn science constructs. In this presentation, a list is provided of articles published in the Journal for Geoscience Education the past five (5) years, assigning each into the QAIT model to integrate published science pedagogy, thus creating a domain-specific model of effective instruction. With an ever-increasing need for new geoscientists in the workforce, and with enrollment in geoscience programs showing marked declines, it is more important than ever that geoscience instructors provide quality lessons that reinforce sound scientific principles. These principles, when incorporated into the QAIT model, provide the best opportunities for academic success.