title: Fostering Change from Within: Influencing Teaching Practices of Departmental Colleagues by Science Faculty with Education Specialties.
abstract: Globally, calls for the improvement of science education are frequent and fervent. In parallel, the phenomenon of having Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) within science departments appears to have grown in recent decades. In the context of an interview study of a randomized, stratified sample of SFES from across the United States, we discovered that most SFES interviewed (82%) perceived having professional impacts in the realm of improving undergraduate science education, more so than in research in science education or K-12 science education. While SFES reported a rich variety of efforts towards improving undergraduate science education, the most prevalent reported impact by far was influencing the teaching practices of their departmental colleagues. Since college and university science faculty continue to be hired with little to no training in effective science teaching, the seeding of science departments with science education specialists holds promise for fostering change in science education from within biology, chemistry, geoscience, and physics departments.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rudd
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kimberly D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Tanner
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kathy S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D005178:Faculty / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D012586:Science / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration