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Examining Faculty Questions to Facilitate Instructional Improvement in Higher Education

By Susan Bickerstaff & Maria S. Cormier
Many of the innovations that show promise for improving outcomes for underprepared community college students require instructors to make changes to their teaching practice. Little research explores the experiences of faculty teaching in reformed courses as related to their professional learning needs. Drawing on a multiyear qualitative study, this paper uses data from 100 faculty interviews to explore the questions they ask when teaching a new course. A key outcome of the analysis is a typology of questions that mirrors the stage of implementation. Through analysis of 20 observations of implementation activities, this paper also documents the learning opportunities made available to instructors and examines the extent to which these activities addressed their questions. This article appears in Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 46.
  • Scaling Innovation

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September 2015

Related Publications

August 2021

Committing to Instructional Improvement in an Era of Community College Reform

September 2014

Redesigning Arithmetic for Student Success: Supporting Faculty to Teach in New Ways

February 2014

Faculty Orientations Toward Instructional Reform

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For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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