A Faculty Professional Development Model That Improves Student Learning, Encourages Active-Learning Instructional...

Area of Science:

• Genetics Education
• Molecular Biology Instruction

Background:

• Faculty face challenges in developing effective instruction due to time, resources, and data utilization constraints.
• Improving student learning requires iterative refinement of instructional materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a collaborative professional development model for faculty to create and implement an instructional unit on mutations.
• To assess the impact of this collaborative model on student learning and faculty instructional practices.

Main Methods:

• A community of 16 faculty from five institutions collaboratively designed, taught, and revised an instructional unit.
• The unit was implemented in 18 courses, reaching over 2000 students.
• Student performance data from pre- and postassessments were used for iterative improvement.

Main Results:

• Student performance on the instructional unit improved significantly from preassessment to postassessment in all classrooms.
• Faculty increased their use of active-learning instructional practices.
• Faculty reported the process was useful for improving teaching and student outcomes.

Conclusions:

• A collaborative professional development model can help geographically dispersed faculty overcome challenges in improving instruction.
• This model effectively enhances student learning in molecular biology topics like mutations.
• The approach supports faculty in adopting active-learning strategies and utilizing student data for continuous improvement.