Hora Published in Review of Higher Education

April 3, 2015

Hora’s paper, “Exploring Faculty Beliefs about Student Learning and Their Role in Instructional Decision-Making,” was published in the journal’s fall 2014 issue. Following interviews with 56 science and math faculty, Hora challenges the common view that faculty’s beliefs can be described as either “teacher-centered” or “learner-centered.”  Instead, Hora found that faculty often hold multiple beliefs that may vary according to the situation.  Hora also reports that two beliefs underlay most faculty belief systems regardless of the degree to which they are “teacher” or “student” centered: that students have different learning styles and they learn best through repeated practice.

The findings provide insights “that can be used to design locally-attuned interventions in contrast to a ‘top‑down’ model of change” that assumes faculty should adopt a “learner-centered” belief system, according to Hora.

Hora specializes in the analysis of curriculum planning and classroom instruction in higher education. He focuses on the effects of pedagogical reforms in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. He is a principal investigator on two WCER projects: “Exploring the Alignment between Workforce Needs and the Postsecondary Curriculum” and “Tracking the Processes of Data-Driven Decision Making in Higher Education.”