Use of research-based instructional strategies: how to avoid faculty quitting

TL;DR

This study shows that faculty supported by research-based instructional strategies and trained specialists are much less likely to quit using these methods, highlighting the importance of support in adopting innovative teaching practices.

Contribution

It provides evidence that direct support from trained specialists significantly reduces faculty quitting rates of research-based instructional strategies.

Findings

Only 1 of 70 faculty quit using RBIS after support.

Support from trained specialists correlates with lower quitting rates.

Most faculty continued using RBIS in subsequent courses.

Abstract

We have examined the teaching practices of faculty members who adopted research-based instructional strategies as part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) at the University of British Columbia. Of the 70 that adopted such strategies with the support of the CWSEI program, only one subsequently stopped using these strategies. This is a tiny fraction of the 33% stopping rate for physics faculty in general [Henderson, Dancy, and Niewiadomska-Bugaj, PRST-PER, 8, 020104 (2012)]. Nearly all of these UBC faculty members who had an opportunity to subsequently use RBIS in other courses (without CWSEI support) did so. We offer possible explanations for the difference in quitting rates. The direct support of the faculty member by a trained science education specialist in the discipline during the initial implementation of the new strategies may be the most important factor.