PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2014
Denver, Colorado
Evaluating Professional Development Workshops Quickly And Effectively
Page: 682
Many funding agencies require evaluation of the impact of professional development projects they support. However, improved student outcomes, the ultimate goal, may take longer to be realized than the project time frame allows. Instructors need time to implement and refine new skills before positive student outcomes are realized, a delay that may be exacerbated in classes that are not taught frequently. We report on one example of an efficient and cost- effective self-report measure designed to detect the initial changes in teaching practices that lead to improved student outcomes over time. We discuss the ability for timely and accurate measures through this instrument. Results support the interpretation that instructors’ reported teaching practices show changes consistent with methods taught at professional development workshops on Inquiry-Based Learning in mathematics. Additionally, correlations with self-reported level of implementation suggest that instructors are reporting honestly, and not just socially desirable changes consistent with their concept of “real Inquiry-Based Learning.”