Publisher's Synopsis
Participants in this workshop were asked to explore three related questions: how to create measures of undergraduate learning in STEM courses; how such measures might be organized into a framework of criteria and benchmarks to assess instruction; and how such a framework might be used at the institutional level to assess STEM courses and curricula to promote ongoing improvements.;The following issues were highlighted: effective science instruction identifies explicit, measurable learning objectives; effective teaching assists students in reconciling their incomplete or erroneous preconceptions with new knowledge; instruction that is limited to passive delivery of information requiring memorization of lecture and text contents is likely to be unsuccessful in eliciting desired learning outcomes; models of effective instruction that promote conceptual understanding in students and the ability of the learner to apply knowledge in new situations are available; institutions need better assessment tools for evaluating course design and effective instruction; means and department chairs often fail to recognize measures they have at their disposal to enhance incentives for improving education; and much is still to be learned from research into how to improve instruction in ways that enhance student learning.
