Advancing STEM teaching and learning with research teams

In this chapter, the author begins with something that is nearly self-evident: a primary reason that STEM faculty members are so successful in research, even in the face of constantly changing and exponentially growing information, is the highly intentional program of professional preparation that they receive. For over a hundred years, professional preparation has catapulted individuals who are barely ten to twelve years out of high school to the leading edges of their discipline and provides the sort of readiness that makes them independent and creative practitioners. They are ready to take on and invent new solutions to complex, challenging problems. The critical component that allows STEM researchers to continue to carry out research even when demands grow and life complicates is the research group: the quid pro quo trade they make to educate the next generation in exchange for getting students to work on their research ideas. Because teaching and learning are areas that intersect every discipline in academia and represent the special dual nature of being a professor (to advance understanding and how they educate), the author argues that understanding the system of professional preparation for STEM research is perhaps the best model for how to prepare the future members of the professoriate, but is also exactly what today's professors need in order to get involved with improving undergraduate education.