Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Faculty Perceptions and Realities Informing Curricular and Instructional Improvements in Postsecondary STEM Education: Development of Transdisciplinary Curricula, Notions of Successful Students, and the Use of Student-Learning Data

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  • Research has confirmed a lack of diversity and persistence of underrepresented populations in the STEM fields. Recruiting and retaining more women and people of color into STEM fields has long been a goal of higher education, per a notable lack of women and people of color who enter and complete undergraduate degree programs and then pursue STEM careers. Research also confirms that faculty and institutional practices promote (or not) student learning and success. Calls to improve the success of more diverse postsecondary students highlight the need for revisions to postsecondary STEM curriculum and instruction. Per their role, STEM faculty occupy a unique and potentially powerful position to influence whether or not students succeed and persevere in their fields. In this dissertation, I present three manuscripts that collectively explore issues related to STEM faculty realities and perspectives, including factors that motivate and challenge the status quo in STEM classrooms. The research in this dissertation spans two different improvement initiatives across four different postsecondary institutions. It includes the perspectives and realities of 38 postsecondary faculty and leaders in STEM and social science disciplines in examining faculty perspectives related to their teaching improvement efforts and their students' success. Findings from the three manuscripts presented in this dissertation offer novel insights concerning how faculty from multiple disciplines experience and develop a transdisciplinary curriculum, how faculty perceive notions of successful students and their teaching practices that support them, and how faculty instructional data-use practices inform their teaching practices, student learning, and reflection on their learning. I look across the three manuscripts to discuss overarching themes that emerged and provide recommendations for stakeholders (i.e., department leaders, administrators, professional development experts, and others) to support faculty involvement in improvement initiatives, particularly in STEM fields.
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