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Students’ Perceptions of Good STEM Teaching

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Talking about Leaving Revisited

Abstract

In the preceding two chapters, we have focused on problematic STEM learning experiences. In Chap. 6, we discussed the nature and extent of difficulties with pedagogy, assessment, and teacher attitudes encountered by SALG survey respondents in foundational STEM courses, and by STEM switchers, relocators, and persisters across all four academic years. In Chap. 7, we discussed a distinctive sub-set of STEM foundation courses where teaching and student assessment methods are primarily geared to a student selection and discarding process. Taken together, these two chapters raise obverse questions of what kinds of teachers and teaching students found effective in enabling their learning. In this chapter, we focus on what current and former STEM students define as “good” teachers and effective teaching methods, their experiences with these, and what benefits they report. Student appraisals include STEM and non-STEM instructors, and STEM teaching assistants in teaching or learning support roles. As in Chap. 6, we draw primarily upon two data sources: interview data that provide reflections from experience in STEM courses across all four academic years, and the results of SALG surveys administered to students in matched sets of STEM foundational courses across all six study sites. We also discuss what has and has not changed since the original study in how students characterize “good” teaching and how these definitions vary by gender and race/ethnicity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ethnography and Evaluation Research (E&ER), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Raquel P. Harper, Timothy J. Weston & Elaine Seymour

  2. Center for STEM Learning, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Raquel P. Harper

  3. National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Timothy J. Weston

Authors
  1. Raquel P. Harper
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  2. Timothy J. Weston
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  3. Elaine Seymour
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Correspondence to Raquel P. Harper .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ethnography & Evaluation Research (E&ER), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Elaine Seymour  & Anne-Barrie Hunter  & 

  2. Center for STEM Learning, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Anne-Barrie Hunter

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Harper, R.P., Weston, T.J., Seymour, E. (2019). Students’ Perceptions of Good STEM Teaching. In: Seymour, E., Hunter, AB. (eds) Talking about Leaving Revisited. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25304-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25304-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25303-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25304-2

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