Browsing by Author "Iverson, Ellen"
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Item Cross-analysis of October 2013 Staff Retreats and SWOT Activities(Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2014) Amarteifio, Gifty; Davila, Heather; Edwards, Brittany; Iverson, Ellen; Larson, Michelle; Ostgaard, Gayra; Kumars ToosiThis project was completed as part of the 2013-2014 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of North St. Paul. In 2013, the City of North St. Paul hired a new city manager who wanted to foster continued reflection among city departments, and departments held a series of retreats as part of this initiative. To determine the impact of these retreats, project lead Jason Ziemer worked with students in Dr. Jean King’s OLPD 8595: Evaluation Problems. The students conducted a SWOT analysis during the retreats and developed a set of recommendations for each. The final memo is available.Item Understanding the Factors that Support the Use of Active Learning Teaching in STEM Undergraduate Courses: Case Studies in the Field of Geoscience(2016-05) Iverson, EllenThe purpose of this study was to understand the factors that support the adoption of active learning teaching strategies in undergraduate courses by faculty members, specifically in the STEM disciplines related to geoscience. The focus of the study centered on the context of the department which was identified as a gap in evaluation and educational research studies of STEM faculty development. The study used a mixed-method case study methodology to investigate the influences of departmental context on faculty members’ adoption of active-learning teaching practices. The study compared and contrasted the influence of two faculty development strategies initiated in the field of geoscience. Six university geoscience departments were selected that had participated in two national geoscience professional development programs. Data were generated from 19 faculty interviews, 5 key informant interviews, and documents related to departmental and institutional context. The study concluded that two main factors influenced the degree to which faculty who participated in geoscience faculty development reported adoption of active learning pedagogies. These conclusions are a) the opportunity to engage in informal, regular conversations with departmental colleagues about teaching promoted adoption of new teaching approaches and ideas and b) institutional practices regarding the ways in which teaching practices were typically measured, valued, and incentivized tended to inhibit risk taking in teaching. The conclusions have implications related to institutional policy, faculty development, and the role of evaluation.