Identifying Best Practices and Supporting Innovative Teaching in STEMM Higher Education

Reports and research on undergraduate and graduate STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) education indicate the importance of STEMM faculty engaging with students, both inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, STEMM faculty play a vital role in utilizing best practices for engaging, retaining, and supporting (under)graduate students in their classroom-based STEMM learning—especially among students who are first-generation, under-represented in STEMM, and/or from under-resourced backgrounds. Further, it is important that innovative STEMM faculty are provided with institutional supports to engage in best practices for teaching STEMM subjects, such as promoting active learning and fostering group collaboration, to name a few.

        In this Special Issue of Education Sciences, we seek manuscripts covering four different areas of higher education:

1. We invite papers from STEMM faculty, graduate students, and higher education instructors who teach undergraduate and/or graduate courses with STEMM students who expertly infuse their own life experiences into their teaching (storytelling); provide avenues for students to engage in real-world scenarios or clinical experiences (role playing); scaffold ways for students to communicate and collaborate in class (cooperative learning); offer ways for students to leverage their unique cultural knowledge and/or backgrounds (culturally responsive pedagogy); challenge students’ prior knowledge to stimulate personalized discussion with and among students (via inquiry or discrepant events); stimulate students’ interests in STEMM using historical or personal artifacts (case studies); encourage opportunities for students to explore and discuss the interrelated nature of STEMM in the world (translating classroom/online knowledge to the world at-large).
2. We invite papers that are focused on teaching an online STEMM course that challenges and engages students.
3. Furthermore, we solicit manuscripts that are also tasked with describing the impacts of these best practices on students’ cognitive or non-cognitive learning in STEMM.
4. Finally, we solicit manuscripts on recommendations for institutional changes to incentivize STEMM faculty to engage the described best practice.

Dear Colleagues,

        Ever since you were in school, you have been influenced and impacted by teachers and their “style of teaching”. You have now been developing, or have developed, your own teaching philosophy.

        There are many great ways to teach, from the didactic lecture to engaged/active/blended teaching styles. We have incorporated self-learning, research, and many other innovative techniques to improve the classroom scenario for an optimal experience in student learning. Furthermore, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are being challenged as we adapt to online teaching styles from the classroom.

        Reports and research on undergraduate and graduate STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) education indicate the importance of STEMM faculty engaging with students, both inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, STEMM faculty play a vital role in utilizing best practices for engaging, retaining, and supporting (under)graduate students in their classroom-based STEMM learning—especially among students who are first-generation, under-represented in STEMM, and/or from under-resourced backgrounds. Further, it is important that innovative STEMM faculty are provided institutional supports to engage in best practices for teaching STEMM subjects, such as promoting active learning and fostering group collaboration, to name a few.

        In this Special Issue of Education Sciences, we seek manuscripts covering four different areas of higher education:

(i) We invite papers from STEMM faculty, graduate students, and higher education instructors who teach undergraduate and/or graduate courses with STEMM students who:

• expertly infuse their own life experiences into their teaching (storytelling);
• provide avenues for students to engage in real-world scenarios or clinical experiences (role playing);
• scaffold ways for students to communicate and collaborate in class (cooperative learning);
• offer ways for students to leverage their unique cultural knowledge and/or backgrounds (culturally responsive pedagogy);
• challenge students’ prior knowledge to stimulate personalized discussion with and among students (via inquiry or discrepant events);
• stimulating students’ interests in STEMM using historical or personal artifacts (case studies);
• encourage opportunities for students to explore and discuss the interrelated nature of STEMM in the world (translating classroom/online knowledge to the world at-large).

(ii) We invite papers that are focused on teaching an online STEMM course that challenges and engages students.

(iii) Furthermore, we solicit manuscripts that are also tasked with describing the impacts of these best practices on students’ cognitive or non-cognitive learning in STEMM.

(iv) Finally, we solicit manuscripts on recommendations for institutional changes to incentivize STEMM faculty to engage the described best practice.

        Original research papers, reviews, commentaries, and cases studies are all welcome.

        The deadline for submission to this Special Theme Issue is from now until November 1, 2021.

Dr. Frank C. Church
Dr. Rebecca Hite
Prof. Scott Cooper
Dr. Yolanda M. Fortenberry
Dr. Laura Glasscock
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.