PRISM II Library

Transforming Higher Education Culture to Support Faculty Engagement in K-16 STEM Education Reform

Abstract

This paper addresses the following claim(s):

"Evidence collected to date in PRISM's ongoing research study supports the claim that the long-term success of the MSP program requires the deep and sustained engagement of a substantial number of higher education STEM faculty members. A valuable lesson learned from PRISM and other NSF-sponsored Math Science Partnership projects is that many faculty members are reluctant to participate in educational reform activities owing to the lack of professional recognition and tangible rewards (Clarke et al., 1996; Zhang et al., 2009). The Faculty Work in the Schools Policy adopted by the University System of Georgia provides the top-down institutional piece of the reward puzzle. Individual institutions add the bottom-up individual incentive piece by offering several opportunities and the requisite resources for faculty collaboration, scholarship, and recognition. Examples of these incentives will be discussed in this presentation."