Date of Award
1-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School
College of Education and Human Services
Department/Program
Teacher Education and Teacher Development
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Jeremy Price
Committee Member
Emily Klein
Committee Member
Michele Knobel
Abstract
Community college faculty members educate almost half of all U.S. undergraduates, who are often more diverse and more academically underprepared when compared to undergraduate students who attend four-year institutions. In addition, faculty members in community colleges are facing increased accountability for meeting student learning outcomes, expectations to adjust their teaching practices to include active learning practices, and expectations to incorporate more technologies into the classroom. Faculty developers are one of the support structures that faculty members can look to in order to meet those challenges. A survey of literature in faculty development suggests that instructional consultation can play an important role in shaping and transforming teaching practices. Hence, this action research study examined my work using instructional consulting with four full-time STEM faculty colleagues in order to examine and shape their teaching practices with and without the use of digital technologies. The two foci of the research, examining shifts in faculty participants’ teaching practices, and my instructional consulting practices, were informed by Thomas and Brown’s (2011) social view of learning and the concept of teaching and learning in a “co-learning” environment. Two dominant factors emerged regarding faculty participants’ shift in teaching practices. These factors concerned: 1) the perception of control and 2) individual faculty participant’s comfort level, expectations, and readiness. In addition to these two dominant factors, the instructional consultation process also supported a range of shifts in either mindset and/or teaching practices. My analysis showed that the use of digital technologies was not an essential factor in shifting faculty participant mindset and/or teaching practices, instead digital technologies were used to enhance the teaching process and students’ learning experiences.
Recommended Citation
Kurland, Shelley Chih-Hsian, "Rethinking Teaching in STEM Education in a Community College : Role of Instructional Consultation and Digital Technologies" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 172.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/172