What About the "How" in Educational Change?

The single most important change that could be made in science education is to engage students actively in every aspect of their learning.  The evidence on this point is clear:  people learn and remember more if they actively process or construct knowledge than if it is given to them in a passive mode, such as lecturing.  Therefore, we need to focus effort on training instructors in the methods of active learning that will enable them to engage their students even in large lecture courses.   In this session, we will discuss “scientific teaching,” an approach to science education that provides evidence-based teaching and learning methods.  We will discuss programs that train graduate students, postdocs, and faculty in the theory and practice of scientific teaching.