The University of Maryland anticipates hiring a Research Associate in STEM Education to start in September 2016
The position:
We are seeking a postdoctoral research associate to conduct research into:
How faculty create courses from collection of materials
How user interfaces can affect course design
How community building activities such as workshops and social media can help faculty incorporate and maintain innovate instructional methods in their teaching.
The postdoc will:
Help develop a shared vision among a large group of stakeholders
Survey and interview faculty to learn about their needs and practices around finding, using, and adapting curricular materials, implementation challenges
Contribute to user-centered design process
Design and contribute to research on professional development, community growth, and uptake of materials and practices.
The project:
IPLS-Portal is a project of a consortium of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and 8 colleges and universities to create of a web portal to serve as a national resource for collecting and curating materials developed for Introductory Physics for Life Science (IPLS) classes. Over the next 4 years, the project will create a large database of materials and a site for the collection and distribution of materials, including a user interface that will help IPLS instructors understand the issues involved in teaching life science students, identify appropriate learning goals, and select materials from the large collection being assembled. The project will also include professional development workshops for users of the database, and extensive research into the use of the materials, the database, and the professional development resources.
Preferred qualifications:
PhD/EdD in STEM field or physics/science education
Enthusiastic learner (because this project will involve research in many different areas, your ability to learn is more important than extensive experience in relevant areas)
Understands how to listen and draw out people’s experiences and perspectives (e.g. in the context of interviews)
Experience with research into faculty change, instructional change, institutional change, and/or faculty professional development
Experience with qualitative research including interviewing and video analysis of behavior
Strong communication and writing skills and a willingness to improve them
Strong time management and organizational skills and a willingness to improve them
Ability to work with a geographically distributed team
Willingness to travel regularly, especially at the beginning of the project
Logistics:
Employer: University of Maryland, College Park
Location: Preferably in the DC area, but will consider hiring someone who would work remotely
Supervisors: Primary supervisor Chandra Turpen, with additional advising by a team of researchers at the University of Maryland (Joe Redish), Montgomery College (Raluca Teodorescu), and the American Association of Physics Teachers (Sam McKagan and Adrian Madsen).
Start date: Prefer September 2016, but will be flexible for the right candidate
Time commitment: Prefer full-time, but will be flexible for the right candidate
Length of appointment: 1-year contract, renewable up to 4 years
For more information:
Contact Chandra Turpen: turpen@umd.edu
