Organization(s): Western Washington University (WWU), Whatcom Community College (WCC), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Program: Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE)
HRI Role: Evaluation
Project Description
Building Educational Theory Through Enacting Reforms in STEM (BIS) is a collaborative research project involving STEM educators, researchers, and equity leaders from Western Washington University (WWU), Whatcom Community College (WCC), and University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Building on previous collaborative work between WWU and WCC, BIS aims to scale up and institutionalize the use of equitable, student-centered instructional practices within undergraduate STEM courses in diverse contexts, in particular institutions that serve students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. To that end, the project will use a design-based research approach to develop, test, and revise a professional development model and set of materials based on an instructional framework that reflects equitable, student-centered pedagogical components (e.g., indicators of practice). The implementation study at each partner institution will examine factors that contribute to or inhibit the uptake of instructional strategies and departmental policies and practices to support the effective use of the pedagogy.
Evaluation Services
HRI’s evaluation includes giving feedback on the project’s research and development processes and products. HRI is also documenting lessons learned by the project, particularly in regard to the scalability of the project’s approach to diverse contexts.
