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Evaluation
The evaluation of this program is designed to answer the following overarching research question:
Does training graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to teach and mentor improve the education of undergraduates, and the preparation of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers for careers in science?
"Working" evaluation questions include:
| • | What are the graduate students' and postdocs' interests and professional goals before entering the program? |
| • | What are the graduate students' and postdocs' teaching and mentoring skills before entering the program? |
| • | Are the Teaching Fellows better able to design and implement quality instructional materials after participation? |
| • | Have the Teaching Fellows learned and applied basic assessment and evaluation techniques in a lab or classroom? |
| • | How have the Teaching Fellows' views about teaching and learning changed after participation? |
| • | Do mentors trained in mentoring provide better research experiences for undergraduate students? |
| • | How do undergraduates' skill and knowledge levels increase due to working with a trained mentor? |
| • | How do the Fellows' teaching and research skills, as perceived by their advisors, change? |
| • | Are the Teaching Fellows' advisors more likely to see them as future colleagues? |
| • | How have the Teaching Fellows' professional interests changed due to their participation in the program? |
Methodology:
Our
evaluation design is multi-dimensional, in that we are evaluating the
overall program as well as specific impacts on graduate students and postdocs,
undergraduate students, and faculty advisors. We use a mixture of techniques,
including both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection.
Examples of techniques used:
Surveys
- baseline, post-participation, and activity-specific
Individual interviews - baseline, post-participation, and topic-centered
Nationally-normed, standardized questionnaires
Observation - in labs and in classrooms
Teaching Philosophy Statement scoring rubric
Teachable Unit Review Rubric
Peer review of Instructional Materials
External evaluation of student research projects
For human subjects inquiries, see http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/research/compliance/humansubjects/tutorial/
For further information or examples of evaluation protocols,
please contact:
Sandra
Gossens
The Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching
scg@plantpath.wisc.edu
(608) 265-0850
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