Conference: Psychology Educators from Two-Year Colleges in Disciplinary Societies: Promoting Equitable Educational Outcomes and Broadening the Pathway into Psychology

This project aims to serve the national interest by fostering the use of evidence-based teaching practices in psychology introductory courses through a conference designed to strengthen the professional interaction between professional societies and faculty. Recognizing the important role that disciplinary societies play and can play in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, the American Psychological Association (APA) requests funds to offer a virtual conference to (1) engage fifty psychology educators at two-year colleges in a professional development activity in support of fostering student success in foundational psychology courses; (2) broaden and diversify pathways to psychology; and (3) foster affiliation and association of these educators with psychology-related disciplinary societies. The conference is designed, specifically, to provide professional development opportunities and instructional resources to educators who are part-time or adjunct faculty and may have little institutional support and time to access and participate in professional development activities external to the institution in which they work. Activities include identification/access to educational resources for gateway psychology courses and for building student study skills; training in evidence-based instruction; and providing networking opportunities to foster the engagement of educators at two-year institutions in psychology-related disciplinary societies. In addition, the virtual conference intends to be a platform for exploring teaching needs, for shedding light on barriers to educator engagement with psychology-related professional societies; and for participating in brainstorming solutions to those barriers. A mixed methods evaluation effort intends to assess the effectiveness of the conference through observation, surveys, and interviews to inform the design of future conferences and to foster professional relationships between faculty at two-year institutions and professional associations/societies. The NSF IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate the impact of and advance knowledge about emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.