Factors influencing undergraduate geoscience instructors’ decisions to attend institutional teaching-focused professional development programs and implement research-based teaching methods

Institutional teaching-focused professional development (PD) programs hold promise as a lever for change in transforming undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education broadly and undergraduate geoscience education specifically. This study examines how geoscience instructors decide to attend institutional PD programs and whether to implement research-based teaching methods (RBTM) discussed in such programs. The study’s theoretical framework draws primarily from Bandura’s concept of triadic reciprocal determinism (TRD), with supplementary concepts from Schoenfeld’s work. The methodology is that of a multiple case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 geoscience instructors at a single research-intensive university in the United States of America. The initial coding manual was developed a priori using Bandura’s TRD factors and Schoenfeld’s related concepts. Interview transcripts were subjected to a constant comparative analysis, during which emergent subcategories of information resulted. These emergent subcategories were incorporated into the final version of the coding manual, which comprised a structure of factors, subfactors, and subcategories. All interview transcripts were analyzed with this coding manual. Subsequently, the subcategories were coded as barriers and/or catalysts in instructors’ decisions to attend PD and implement RBTM. Observed patterns of instructor experience with barriers and catalysts were synthesized to develop an original instructional decision making (IDM) model and an IDM pathways model. These models can be used by researchers as tools for conceptualizing the IDM process and framing possible IDM pathways. They may be especially useful to those considering how to maximize available resources for the PD of their STEM instructors. Recommendations are made for supporting instructors in their PD to transform undergraduate STEM education.