Virginia Tech researchers have received $1 million from the Educating Character Initiative, a grant through Wake Forest University and the private philanthropic foundation Lilly Endowment Inc., to support compassionate teaching in STEM. The program will fund strategies to bring new course designs, pedagogy, and character development into the classroom.
Virginia Tech is one of 29 institutions awarded grants to lead a significant, ongoing effort to promote character education among their undergraduate populations.
“The goal is to create a community of practice across two institutions known for their engineering education programs, Virginia Tech and Colorado School of Mines, and build an inclusive environment to cultivate the next generation of STEM professionals,” said Qin Zhu, associate professor of engineering education.
The three-year grant, Building a Culture of Compassion in STEM Education: Empowering Faculty as Agents of Institutional Change, is led by Virginia Tech and includes participation of faculty from the Colorado School of Mines. It is led by Zhu and co-primary investigators Michele Deramo, associate vice president for education and engagement, and Jill Sible, associate vice provost for undergraduate education.
Other institutions receiving funding include Harvard University, Purdue University, United States Naval Academy, University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, and the University of California, Berkeley.
For the project, Zhu describes a culture of compassion in STEM education in two ways: First it’s a learning environment that supports the growth of STEM students both academically and as members of society.
“Everything that happens in our classrooms, happens in the context of the rest of our students’ and faculties’ lives,” Sible said. “We don’t leave everything behind when we step into a lecture hall or lab.”
“There’s a rich field of research that demonstrates that creating a healthy, inclusive setting can improve rather than compromise student learning,” she said.
Second, creating a culture of compassion in STEM courses will help students think about how their work will impact people, Zhu said. Many of today’s engineering students will work on transformational technologies such as artificial intelligence, drones, and robotics that have the potential to drive wide-ranging changes to society.
“Students come to us to learn technical skills, but the hope is they will learn something equally important,” said Roel Snieder, a professor of geophysics at Colorado School of Mines and a key team member on the project. “It’s to see the impact and role of their work more broadly in the world.”
The grant will provide training opportunities for faculty during the next three years across a broad range of STEM-related fields. Each cohort will spend four weeks meeting online for two-hour workshops with colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines, supplemented by smaller virtual discussion groups held between workshops. After the workshops and discussion groups, participating faculty are expected to integrate compassionate pedagogies into their classrooms and reflect on the experience. The grant includes a $1,000 stipend for participating faculty.
For Sehrish Basir Nizamani, a member of the grant’s first cohort, the program had a profound impact on her understanding of her students and how she communicates with them.
“There is a huge amount of competition in STEM fields, especially computer science,” said Nizamani, a collegiate assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science. “We admit a large number of students each year, who are all worried about their future because they need jobs and have to complete a complicated curriculum, that is changing each year because of innovation in the field.”
Nizamani said she has brought elements of the weekly meeting into her classroom. For example, she applies practices of “teaching with heart” by leading short question-and-answers sessions or initiating class discussions to connect with her students, build engagement, and show that she is approachable.
“We expect a lot from our students, and more than that, the market expects a lot from them after they graduate,” she said. “It’s really hard, and if they know they have a professor that understands, sees, and is engaged with them, they have a much better chance of being successful when they’re inevitably faced with a challenge.”
Virginia Tech’s Department of Engineering Education is unique nationally and among peer institutions. The program represents a 20-year commitment to improving the educational experience of engineering majors, offering Ph.D. programs and teaching general engineering to 2,500 first-year students.
Currently, instructors from four departments and several administrative units are part of the first four-week cohort. Faculty interested in participating in the future are encouraged to contact Zhu or visit the Compassionate STEM Education website for more information.
By Will Rizzo