Enhancing Student Success in Biology, Chemistry & Physics by Transforming the Faculty Culture

Change is ubiquitous within colleges and universities but sustained and directed change challenging to implement. We have employed a model that reflects recent literature and report the results of implementing several change strategies which demonstrably are providing a sustainable environment for enhanced student learning. The major goal of this effort was to transform the faculty culture across the four STEM departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics in a way that enhances student learning and student success. Two central elements of our approach involve (1) departmental Teaching and Learning Liaisons, who are in some sense informed faculty champions who can provide both departmental and individual faculty support within each department, and (2) departmental informal Teaching and Learning lunches. We discuss selected results including a change in DWF rates in the foundational STEM courses over time with fairly dramatic reductions in the DWF rate in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics with selected reductions in Mathematics. The TLL lunches have resulted in a sharp uptick in the knowledge of teaching literature broadly across faculty and have increased faculty participation in active learning.