In this post, we wanted to hi-light lessons learned in our evaluation report on a large-scale professional development program, Institutional Change through Faculty Advancement in Instruction and Mentoring (ICFAIM) at Jackson State University (JSU), an NSF-funded implementation project. This program builds on two previous PD models, Mississippi Academy for Science Teaching, (Project MAST), also funded by NSF, and MAST-5, (funded by the U.S. Department of Education). Both programs have provided professional development for K-12 science teachers from more than twenty school districts in Mississippi over a period of 10 years. ICFAIM’s goal is to increase the retention of undergraduate students in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) at JSU by helping its faculty members and graduate students to improve their teaching and mentoring. This program focuses its efforts on the Department of Physics, Atmospheric Sciences and Geoscience (PASGS) by providing faculty professional development workshops in student-centered pedagogy and mentoring.
In 2017, REA conducted its third evaluation of the ICFAIM program at JSU. The goal of our 2017 evaluation was to document what ICFAIM faculty members experienced and learned as a result of participating in ICFAIM. Faculty members reported changes in their teaching practice and in their science content knowledge. Furthermore, we found that students of ICFAIM-trained faculty improved their critical thinking skills, and science content knowledge in physics and physical science. Research in the field of teacher PD points to the importance of self-regulated learning for teachers to construct and customize their own learning experiences, and, in turn, to show students the effectiveness of collective expertise and learning environments (Peters-Burton, Cleary & Forman, 2015). While creating ample learning environments and conditions for teachers to learn is challenging and complex, our evaluations have provided us with some insights about ICFAIM’s implementation and potential impact, as well as more questions we would like to explore with other programs using similar professional development models. We invite you to learn more about our findings on the Institutional Change through Faculty Advancement in Instruction and Mentoring (ICFAIM) program in our full evaluation report.
Citation: Peters-Burton, E., Cleary, T. J., & Forman, S. (2015). Professional development contexts that promote self-regulated learning and content learning in trainees. Self-regulated learning interventions with at-risk youth: Enhancing adaptability, performance, and well-being, 205-228.