Understanding how facilitators adapt to needs of STEM faculty in online learning communities: a case study.

Facilitation Faculty Learning Community Faculty Online Learning Community Faculty change Professional growth

Journal

International journal of STEM education
ISSN: 2196-7822
Titre abrégé: Int J STEM Educ
Pays: Germany
ID NLM: 101738908

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2022
Historique:
received: 07 10 2021
accepted: 06 08 2022
entrez: 12 9 2022
pubmed: 13 9 2022
medline: 13 9 2022
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) and Faculty Online Learning Communities (FOLCs) are ways to support STEM faculty implementing research-based curricula. In these communities, faculty facilitators take on the role of sharing expertise and promoting discussion. However, as members gain more experience, their needs change from addressing logistical to pedagogical issues. Hence, facilitators need to change their practices in response. However, there is little research on the mechanisms of faculty facilitator change. In this article, we provide a case study of a specific STEM FOLC facilitator and demonstrate the usefulness of a teacher change model to investigate facilitator change. Guided by our adaptation of the  Our findings suggest that the IMPG can be fruitfully adapted to study facilitator change. A diagrammatic representation of the IMPG provides a description the types of change the case facilitator experienced and the factors that supported those changes. We discuss how the methodology used to analyze facilitator actions in FOLC group meetings may be useful to study other types of professional growth. Finally, because our analytical model allowed us to identify mechanisms of facilitator change, we describe the implications and provide suggestions to support facilitators in other faculty community groups. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-022-00371-x.

Sections du résumé

Background UNASSIGNED
Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) and Faculty Online Learning Communities (FOLCs) are ways to support STEM faculty implementing research-based curricula. In these communities, faculty facilitators take on the role of sharing expertise and promoting discussion. However, as members gain more experience, their needs change from addressing logistical to pedagogical issues. Hence, facilitators need to change their practices in response. However, there is little research on the mechanisms of faculty facilitator change. In this article, we provide a case study of a specific STEM FOLC facilitator and demonstrate the usefulness of a teacher change model to investigate facilitator change.
Results UNASSIGNED
Guided by our adaptation of the 
Conclusions UNASSIGNED
Our findings suggest that the IMPG can be fruitfully adapted to study facilitator change. A diagrammatic representation of the IMPG provides a description the types of change the case facilitator experienced and the factors that supported those changes. We discuss how the methodology used to analyze facilitator actions in FOLC group meetings may be useful to study other types of professional growth. Finally, because our analytical model allowed us to identify mechanisms of facilitator change, we describe the implications and provide suggestions to support facilitators in other faculty community groups.
Supplementary Information UNASSIGNED
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-022-00371-x.

Identifiants

pubmed: 36093289
doi: 10.1186/s40594-022-00371-x
pii: 371
pmc: PMC9443628
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

56

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2022.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.

Références

CBE Life Sci Educ. 2016 Summer;15(2):
pubmed: 27252298
Int J STEM Educ. 2021;8(1):45
pubmed: 34306968
Int J STEM Educ. 2021;8(1):17
pubmed: 33643775
Int J STEM Educ. 2017;4(1):28
pubmed: 30631684
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jun 10;111(23):8410-5
pubmed: 24821756

Auteurs

Makenna M Martin (MM)

Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92120 USA.

Fred Goldberg (F)

Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92120 USA.

Michael McKean (M)

Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92120 USA.

Edward Price (E)

Department of Physics, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096 USA.

Chandra Turpen (C)

Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA.

Classifications MeSH