BHEF Partners with AAU on Five-Year Initiative for Improving Undergraduate STEM Education

Washington, DC (September 14, 2011) — The Association of American Universities (AAU) announced today that it will undertake a five-year initiative on undergraduate teaching in STEM fields, particularly focused on the first two years of college.  AAU will work closely with the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), AAU universities, and other groups that are already engaged in complementary efforts to implement the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative. The goals of the initiative are to help institutions assess the quality of STEM teaching on their campuses, share best practices, and create incentives for their departments and faculty members to adopt the most effective teaching methods in their classes.

“In recent years, researchers, many of them at our universities, have learned a great deal about the most effective methods of teaching specific STEM subjects,” said AAU President Hunter R. Rawlings. “We now need to disseminate these methods widely among universities so that more faculty members will adopt the best teaching practices in their classrooms. AAU is not conducting another study or research project on STEM education. We are moving to implement the results of the latest research into science and math pedagogy.”

AAU is assembling a technical advisory committee composed of experts in undergraduate STEM teaching and learning to help guide the initiative.  AAU will also ask university presidents and chancellors to join a new task force that will also help guide efforts in the initiative and play a key role in the demonstration program for the framework.

Click here for more information about the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative.