Ensuring Initial and Ongoing STEM Disciplinary Faculty Participation in MSPs
STEM disciplinary faculty have been an integral part of the Math and Science Partnership programs' efforts to reform mathematics and science education. Ensuring the participation of STEM disciplinary faculty in MSP efforts requires understanding the factors that support and hinder their involvement, and taking steps to garner and sustain institutional support for their work.
Practice-based Insights on Ensuring STEM Disciplinary Faculty Participation
Advice from experienced MSP program leaders offers guidance to those involved in ensuring initial and ongoing participation of STEM disciplinary faculty in MSP efforts to improve mathematics and science education. Through a systematic process involving an online survey for MSP program leaders and review and written reflection on insights derived from the online survey by a number of MSP program leaders, MSP-Knowledge Management and Dissemination project staff organized advice into a series of insights. Insights provided by a group of MSP program leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences in working with STEM disciplinary faculty and teachers included the following ideas:
- It helps to have friends in high places: Secure IHE administrator support
- Make the enterprise rewarding: Work to have MSP efforts count towards tenure and promotion
- There are only 24 hours in a day: Provide time for STEM faculty to do MSP work
- Look for a good fit: Match MSP work with STEM faculty interests
- Don't let up: Maintain STEM faculty participation
Learn more about practitioner insights on ensuring initial and ongoing STEM faculty participation.
Research on Involving STEM Faculty in Deepening Teacher/Teacher Leader Content Knowledge
Evidence from a targeted search of the empirical literature suggests that involving STEM faculty is an effective approach to deepening teachers' mathematics/science content knowledge. Nine research studies were identified that investigated professional development programs that involved STEM disciplinary faculty in deepening teacher content knowledge. Each of the studies reported positive results on participating teachers' content knowledge.
