Educational Research

The Center for Excellence in Science Education (CESE) has several research initiatives to support and understand teaching and learning in our college. These research initiatives are designed to investigate how effective our programs are, how to best support faculty in their professional development as educators, and how our students perceive teaching and learning in the college. More specifically, we ask questions related to how faculty perceptions of teaching change as a result of our programs, how effective learning assistants are in the classroom, how to best train and support learning assistants, what types of resources faculty use in their classrooms and why, and what barriers exist when encouraging faculty to take risks in their classrooms.

Pursuing our programs from an educational research perspective has allowed us to systematically study the impact CESE has on faculty and students. This information allows us to continually refine and improve our programs, as well as share our work at conferences and through publications.

Recent Work

Campbell, J. M., Malcos, J. L., & Bortiatynski, J. M. (2019). Growing a Learning Assistant Program: Using Perceptions to Inform Improvement. Journal of College Science Teaching, 48(3),66-73. Bortiatynski, J. M. & Malcos, J. L. (2018, June). Using Teaching Portfolios to Engage Faculty in Improving Student Learning. Round Table at the Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC) Conference, Columbus, OH.