The Impacts of a Faculty-led Learning Community on Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices

The Transforming STEM Teaching and Learning Academy is a professional development workshop and learning community that aims to improve student outcomes in STEM courses at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte by guiding instructors as they incorporate evidence-based practices into their courses. This faculty-led learning community introduces STEM faculty to pedagogical techniques and supports them as they adopt these pedagogical best practices. Since the STEM Academy completed its third cohort, the co-leaders who developed the program aimed to reflect on its evolution and influence. To understand the impacts the STEM Academy has had on instructors, interviews were conducted with past participants. The interview questions collected information on what specific practices have been implemented in classrooms, what barriers or challenges were faced with implementation, how the STEM Academy has impacted instructor's philosophy of teaching, and what level of support they have experienced from their departments and the university. Results from the interviews revealed that most instructors were able to implement the practices taught in the academy and experienced positive results in the forms of confidence and satisfaction with changes made as well as increased student engagement. Feedback from instructors as well as examples of activities and materials used during the STEM Academy will be presented along with an open discussion of its practice and impact.