Center Proposal Review: / HS-STEM Center / Contact: / Sylvia Oliver, 8-7635
Graduate Faculty
Reviewers: / Kenn B. Daratha
Ted Chauvin / Review Date: / 11/13/2014

Background:

On 10/29/2014 the Chair of Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) and the Chair of the Budget Committee of the Faculty Senate were asked to review a proposal to establish the WSU Spokane Health Science STEM Education Center (HS-STEM Center). The GSC Chair (Daratha) accepted primary reviewer responsibility and a GSC member (Chauvin) accepted secondary review responsibility. Two guiding principles were followed in this review:

  1. Examine the impact of the proposal on graduate and professional education at WSU;
  2. Seek to enhance and improve the proposal with regards to graduate and professional education at WSU.

General Reviewer Comments:

  1. The Center proposal focuses on graduate education but does not differentiate the unique needs of professional programs, students and faculty. This distinction is important as much of the proposal focuses on increasing opportunities for students. The difficulty for students in professional programs is the demands of a packed curriculum that allow little time for opportunities that are seen as outside the curriculum.
  2. From a faculty perspective, the Center proposal would be strengthened if the clear benefits of Center participation were clearly described.
  3. The Center proposal clearly documents the success of STEM programs and the growth of the Health Science campus in Spokane. However, the bridge between STEM and Health Sciences is not clearly described.
  4. The goals of the Center include focus on health science and STEM education outreach, professional activity and research. Is this health science outreach, professional activity and research and STEM education outreach, professional activity and research? Or, is this health science education outreach, professional activity and research and STEM education outreach, professional activity and research?

Specific Proposal Comments:

  1. The Center proposal advocates increasing the “effectiveness of instruction across all disciplines and professions through collaboration between health science faculty and College of Education faculty who are experienced in professional development and course evaluation for all educators”. Further, an objective to “promote and provide professional development for faculty and graduate students to increase instructional effectiveness” is described. The addition of details on how this will be accomplished would be tremendously helpful. The focus of elaborating on this section of the proposal should be professional development opportunities for current faculty to evaluate and improve their teaching expertise. Why would faculty choose to participate? Collaborative opportunities and university events already exist, yet faculty rarely leave their disciplines to engage in such professional development opportunities. How would the HS-STEM Center facilitate and lead such collaborations?
  2. The Center proposal advocates “interdisciplinary and interprofessional education outreach opportunities providing a critical interface between university students and regional middle, high school and community college students.” For years the campus has provided interdisciplinary opportunities, but outside the student’s disciplinary curriculum. One tangible outcome of establishing the HS-STEM Center, could be facilitating true interdisciplinary curriculum in areas common to the health sciences (i.e. physical assessment, pharmacology, pathology, critique of the research evidence). Such tangible efforts should be described in this proposal and the leadership role of the Center should be clearly defined.
  3. The Center proposal states as an objective to attract graduate students interested in health sciences and STEM education research to WSU Spokane. How does the HS-STEM Center intend to recruit and attract graduate students? Based on STEM program success it is clear how work in the high schools and community colleges can attract undergraduate students. What is the strategy for attracting graduate students? The Center proposal fails to recognize the growth of professional programs often results in diminished interest in graduate programs.
  4. A long term goal of the Center proposal states “formation of interdisciplinary and interprofessional health science and STEM education research teams”. No acknowledgement of current barriers for such research teams are listed. The current culture fails to recognize ‘our students’ and instead focuses on ‘my students’. A small number of undergraduate and graduate students pursue research opportunities outside their professional curriculum. However, pressures to focus on curricular activities often reduce enthusiasm for participation in research. Will research activities formally become part of each discipline’s curriculum? The HS-STEM Center’s leadership in this area should be clearly described.
  5. Engagement in interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams requires ‘team overhead’. Faculty and students focus on the tasks that can be completed within their discipline. The Center proposal would be strengthened if acknowledgement of ‘team overhead’ was stated and strategies for switching from a disciplinary to interdisciplinary were shared.
  6. References to WWAMI Medical Education must be removed and replaced with the College of Medical Sciences.
  7. Benefits of the Center include study of graduate students participation in “effective pedagogy and curricular” research. Does the Center propose assistantship positions to focus graduate student research in this area? Are Health Science faculty already funded to conduct research in this area?

Daratha – Center Review – HS-STEM (11132014) Page 1