- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1240124
- First Name Brian
- Last Name Lawler
- Discipline Mathematics
- Co-PI(s)
Ed Price, CSU San Marcos, eprice@csusm.edu; André Kündgen, CSU San Marcos, akundgen@csusm.edu
- Presenters
Brian R Lawler, CSU San Marcos, blawler@csusm.edu
Need
At our university, we received very few applications for our fifth-year credential from our own STEM undergraduates.
Goals
Our goal was to increase the number of our own STEM undergraduates that applied to our fifth-year credential program. We leveraged a Learning Assistant program to target and recruit strong STEM majors. Specific strategies included creating early teaching opportunities and identifying strategic partners in each of the STEM undergraduate majors.
Approach
We drew heavily on the recommendations of the PhysTEC community, emphasizing the need for early teaching experiences, relationships, and combating the discourse in many STEM undergraduate programs about teaching being a fall-back career.
Outcomes
In the three years of our project, we went from accepting an average of 2 of our STEM undergrads to 9 for the 2016-17 academic year.
Broader Impacts
There are many 5th year (or post-baccalaureate) credential programs across the country. Our work can be useful to the 5th year schools by understanding how to tap into a Learning Assistant community to recruit STEM teachers. While not all 5th year programs have a local Learning Assistant program, our experiences can likely be translated to similar STEM undergraduate communities on campus.
