Research & Organizers

Project Description

Faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines face intensifying pressures in the 21st century, including multiple roles as educators, researchers, and entrepreneurs. They typically teach at both the undergraduate and graduate level. They write proposals and secure funding to support students at multiple levels. They mentor undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral scholars. They present and publish their research outcomes in highly rigorous outlets. They are expected to communicate their research to a broad array of audiences, such as the scientific community, undergraduate and graduate students, K-12 students and educators, and the general public. Societal needs of their expertise include discovery, innovation, and workforce development. It is critical to provide STEM faculty with professional development to support their complex roles and to base this development on evidence derived from research. Much research has been focused on STEM faculty development in support of teaching and student-centered learning, with less attention on the other aspects of the professoriate in the 21st century. Therefore, the workshop brought together participants who are scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, industrial partners, and thought leaders to assemble a research agenda on faculty development focused on the STEM disciplines.

In this project, a group of experts convened at Clemson University for a 1 1/2-day workshop. These experts participated in a combination of plenary sessions and small group activities to identify the outstanding research questions associated with faculty development and craft a research agenda. The primary outcome of the workshop was a set of effective STEM faculty development characteristics that can be implemented based on the outcomes of the workshop and explored in future projects. The findings and final report from the workshop are being disseminated through a project website, a collective blog, and presentations at conferences. Widespread dissemination of the report will spur new research on how to best support faculty in their role as educators of future engineers.

NSF Acknowledgement
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1638888, Building Research Capacity for STEM Faculty Development.