Our Proposal

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Introduction
Goals and Outcomes
Background Rationale
Scope of Work
National Conversation
Impact of CIRTL Professional Development Program
Evaluation and Research
Prior Work and Institutional Capacity
Personnel
Management
Summary

VIII . Personnel

CIRTL is a strong collaboration of STEM faculty and education researchers. All co-PIs and team leaders are briefly described below; however, they represent only a subset of those involved in CIRTL.

Steve Ackerman, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UW ; Director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies; Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and Aerospace Outreach Awards from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium.

Ann E. Austin, Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, MSU; nationally known for work in faculty professional development, improvement of teaching and learning in higher education, and organizational change in higher education; co-PI of Spencer- and Pew-funded “The Development of Graduate Students as Teaching Scholars.” Past President, Assoc. for the Study of Higher Education.

Roger G. Baldwin, Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, MSU; known nationally for research on professional development strategies, the academic career development process, and faculty collaboration; expertise in teaching and learning issues, curriculum development and reform.

Aaron M. Brower, Professor of Social Work & Integrated Liberal Studies, UW; Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching; nationally known for developing and evaluating residential learning communities; currently Director of the Bradley Learning Community.

Judith N. Burstyn, Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology, UW; Co-Director Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Residential Learning Community, former chair, Department of Chemistry Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, restructured undergraduate chemistry curriculum at UW, internationally recognized researcher in bioinorganic chemistry.

Alberto F. Cabrera, Professor of Educational Administration, UW; nationally renowned for work on equity issues pertaining to minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged students in higher education; his research on access to and persistence in college has been adapted by the Pathways to College Network as a framework to guide funding and intervention strategies.

Eileen Callahan, Associate Director of the Graduate Student Professional Development Office, UW; co-PI on the GK-12 award “K-Through-Infinity Systemic Professional Development”.

Chris Carlson-Dakes, Associate Director, Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment, UW ; adjunct faculty in College of Engineering; executive committee of the UW Teaching Academy; focuses on creating cross-disciplinary communities in higher education.

Carol Colbeck, Associate Professor of Higher Education, PSU, and Senior Research Associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education; conducts research on faculty integration of teaching, research, and service, and relationships between organizational climate, faculty teaching, and student learning; co-directed evaluation of the NSF-funded ECSEL coalition.

Clifton F. Conrad, Professor of Educational Administration, UW; nationally recognized scholar of higher education teaching and learning in undergraduate and graduate education across the liberal arts and sciences; Past President, Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Sandra Shaw Courter, Director, Engineering Learning Center, Adjunct Professor, Engineering Professional Development, UW; Executive Committee of Educational Research and Methods, Division for the American Society for Engineering Education; research interests in curriculum innovation and graduate student development.

Sharon Dunwoody, Professor and Director of School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Associate Dean for Social Sciences, Graduate School, UW; international reputation for studies of public understanding of science via the mass media; teaches science writing to a variety of audiences, including scientists; policy experience with science advisory bodies of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.

James Fairweather, Professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education, MSU; nationally known for his work in faculty roles and rewards, industry-university partnerships, reforming undergraduate engineering education, and higher education policy; extensive experience in evaluation and project management; co-directed evaluation of the ECSEL coalition and is co-PI of a GE Fund project to study reform in undergraduate engineering service courses.

Walter Goodman, Professor of Entomology, UW; research areas include genetic regulation of insect development and insect immunity; instructional interests include development of new methods of enhancing inquiry-based science.

Robert D. Mathieu, Professor of Astronomy, UW; internationally recognized researcher in stellar astrophysics; Presidential Young Investigator, Guggenheim Fellow; Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching; experience in managing large programs includes Associate Director of the NISE, Director of the CL-1 Institutes, President of Board of Directors for WIYN Observatory, Inc.

Susan Millar, Director of the Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation, and Dissemination (LEAD) Center, UW; evaluation work focuses on faculty and student learning and organizational change processes associated with efforts to improve learning in the STEM disciplines; currently serves as chair of the NSF Education and Human Resources Advisory Board.

Terrence Millar, Professor of Mathematics, Associate Dean for Physical Sciences, Graduate School, Interim Director of the Graduate Student Professional Development Office, UW; PI on the GK-12 awards “K-Through-Infinity Professional Development Partnership” and “K-Through-Infinity Systemic Professional Development”; former co-director of NISE.

John Moore, W. T. Lippincott Professor of Chemistry, UW; Director of the Institute for Chemical Education, Editor of the Journal of Chemical Education, former co-PI of the New Traditions project, one of five NSF-funded systemic initiatives in chemistry; awarded every major award in chemical education and the UW-System Underkofler Award for Teaching Excellence.

Gregory A. Moses, Professor of Engineering Physics, UW; internationally recognized in inertial fusion; reformer of higher education using information technology; co-lead of NSF PACI Education and Outreach Program Leadership Team, and on Executive Committee of NSF/NPACI partnership.

Andrew Porter, Anderson Bascom Professor of Educational Psychology, and Director, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, UW; leader in work on student achievement assessment; member of the National Academy of Education and Immediate Past President of the American Educational Research Association; has directed a number of large education R&D centers, including the NISE.

James Stewart, Professor of Science Education, UW; an active research program on student learning and reasoning in the sciences; Associate Director of the National Center for Improving Student Learning in Mathematics and Science and a founding member of the UW-Madison’s Center for Biology Education and the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium.

Norman L. Webb, Senior Research Scientist, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, UW; nationally known for work on evaluation and assessment; co-PI of GK-12 program evaluation, Study of Systemic Reform in Milwaukee Public Schools, and Study of the Impact of the State Systemic Initiatives; evaluator of the vertical integration projects.

IX . Management

CIRTL will be structured to be a highly interactive, collegial system, while maintaining the clear lines of authority and responsibility necessary to ensure quality accountability, direction, and leadership. CIRTL will be operated through a partnership of UW, MSU, PSU, and the NSF. CIRTL will be co-directed by Robert Mathieu, UW Professor of Astronomy, and Andrew Porter, UW Professor of Educational Psychology. This balance in leadership between STEM and social science reflects the character of the center we seek to establish, and is reflected in each development team.

Mathieu will have primary responsibility for the development and implementation activities at UW described in Section III.a. Mathieu will be assisted by a half-time Program Coordinator, whose responsibilities will be management of the implementation of the CIRTL program at UW, including communicating with graduate-through-faculty participants, coordinating the learning community, serving as liaison with campus teaching and learning initiatives, managing the internship program, promotion of CIRTL programs, etc. The UW Graduate School strongly endorses this proposal, and over the duration of CIRTL will provide half of this position as well as project assistants in order to promote successful institutionalization of the CIRTL programs at UW. Mathieu and these staff will be physically located at the CIRTL Learning Community.

Porter will have primary responsibility for the evaluation, research, and transfer activities. Evaluation of UW development and implementation activities will be led by Webb and administered out of WCER. Development, management, and evaluation of the transfer activities will be led by Fairweather and administered out of MSU. Fairweather will coordinate closely with Mathieu and Webb in the transfer of the CIRTL program from UW to the Network institutions. The research programs will also be led by Fairweather.
Mathieu will be the principal contact to NSF, while Porter will take lead responsibility for managing day-to-day activities of the center administration, supported by a project manager. WCER has established capacity to support large and geographically dispersed centers such as CIRTL.

Mathieu, Porter, Fairweather, and the team leaders for the development activities will constitute the Management Team. This management team approach is patterned after the NISE, which was highly effective in maintaining coherence, communication, and quality in that geographically dispersed consortium. The Management Team will convene at least once monthly through conference calls or face-to-face meetings. The Management Team will provide oversight of CIRTL work and dissemination activities; identify and implement strategies for improvements; ensure that individual activities continue to be coordinated as a coherent strategy; and plan future directions. When appropriate, NSF staff will join these meetings via conference call or videoconference.

CIRTL will have a National Advisory Board of representatives from academic campuses, national centers, and industry. A primary purpose of this board is to ensure that CIRTL is aware of and responsive to the teaching needs and concerns of the full array of institutions that hire STEM Ph.D.s. We will include on our board representatives of community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, liberal arts colleges, and masters-level institutions, ensuring their input in the development of CIRTL tools and strategies. We also anticipate local advisory boards of faculty, staff, students, and administrators to guide the implementations throughout the CIRTL Network.

X . Summary

The proposed Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning will create, implement, and transfer on a national scale an interdisciplinary program of graduate-through-faculty professional development in STEM higher education. CIRTL is founded on the concept of teaching-as-research implemented within a learning community. We believe that the combination of these two powerful ideas will significantly increase the number of STEM faculty who use effective teaching practices and who establish career-long commitments to improving STEM undergraduate education. The ultimate achievement of CIRTL will be to contribute to the creation of a national STEM faculty that enables all students to achieve STEM literacy, whose teaching enhances recruitment into STEM careers, and whose leadership ensures the continued advance of STEM education.

CIRTL
1025 W. Johnson St.
Madison, WI 53706
ph.: 608.263.0630
fax: 608.265.0538