Investigating the Uptake of Research-Based Instructional Strategies: A Post-COVID Update

About This Grant

This project aims to serve the national interest by mapping national patterns in the use of research-based instructional practices in post-secondary chemistry, mathematics, and physics courses five years after the disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Spring of 2019, a survey was sent to roughly 18,000 instructors of first-year mathematics, chemistry, and physics courses at nearly 1000 post-secondary institutions. That survey provided a comprehensive view of introductory science courses and instructors across the United States, with responses from nearly 4000 faculty from 660 U.S. colleges and universities. However, just one year later colleges and universities across the nation quickly shifted to online, emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID pandemic. The scale of instructional change during this time was both unprecedented and ubiquitous, with nearly every instructor teaching in the spring of 2020 required to try something new, and many needing to continue experimenting and revising their courses for the following semesters. This project will repeat the 2019 survey in order to characterize any lasting impact of the COVID pandemic on undergraduate science education and understand what this new instructional landscape may mean for change agents working to improve undergraduate science education through the uptake of research-based instructional practices. The goals of this project are to 1) understand the impact of the COVID pandemic on undergraduate science education as well as provide a current description of undergraduate science instruction, and 2) in consideration of any shifts following the COVID disruption to higher education, revise and update the research-based insights and recommendations for supporting and achieving instructional change in undergraduate STEM. To do so, the roughly 18,000 instructors will be re-surveyed. Some of the survey analyses will be conducted on the new responses alone, including multilevel modeling of the impact of malleable factors on instructors’ adoption of research-based instructional practices. Other analyses will incorporate the prior results for pre-post analysis to capture changes in the practices of both individuals and the disciplines in the aggregate. Where changes are observed, additional statistical tests and modeling will be used to identify the impact of emergency response teaching strategies on those shifts. These findings will be used by change agents (e.g., professional development organizations, instructional coaches) to better support undergraduate instructors in implementing research-based instructional strategies and by administrators (e.g., department chairs, course coordinators) in making resource allocations and policy decisions. These results will update the foundational knowledge base needed to support widespread pedagogical shifts toward the use of research-based instructional practices in post-secondary STEM education, impacting undergraduate students across the country. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.