Doctoral and Postdoctoral STEM Teaching-Related Professional Development: Effects on Training and Early Career Periods
WCER Working Paper No. 2007-8
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart, Susan Millar, Shihmei Barger, and Mark Connolly
October 2007, 40 pp.
ABSTRACT: Teaching-related professional development (TPD) projects aimed at aspiring college/university educators (ACEs) have emerged in the U.S. in the last decade, partially in response to calls for colleges and universities to play a more prominent role in improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and increasing the number of STEM graduates. We report on the effects of TPD during doctoral and postdoctoral (preservice) training on the attitudes, knowledge, teaching practices, and career trajectories of ACEs in the STEM fields. Findings pertain to (a) the value of investment in preservice TPD programs in light of the experiences of ACEs who are still in training and who are transitioning into their first professional positions and (b) the factors associated with these outcomes.
keywords: Future Faculty Development; STEM Education; Doctoral Education
