Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Grace Keengwe

Abstract

Despite an expanded focus on educating students in STEM disciplines, nearly half of U.S. college students who enroll in these degree programs fail to graduate (Hamm et al., 2020, p. 623). Critics sometimes blame pedagogically untrained faculty (e.g., Kahn, 2022). This Dissertation in Practice (DiP) focused on STEM university faculty's motivation for teaching and whether professors are motivated to enroll in pedagogy courses. Via the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), this DiP examined to what extent STEM faculty at a major research university in the upper Midwest could devote additional time to pedagogy by enrolling in a college teaching graduate certificate program. This DiP utilized a semi-structured interview (n = 6) to address the primary research question of to what extent faculty are motivated to enroll in a college teaching graduate certificate program to address critics who advocate for pedagogically trained faculty. Findings indicated that the behavioral needs of professors were not sufficiently satisfied to engage in a graduate teaching certificate. Rather, the STEM faculty were interested in pursuing a method of pedagogical development that satisfied their behavioral needs more effectively, engaging in book club related discussions. The implications of this study suggest that STEM faculty are motivated for pedagogical improvement under certain circumstances (i.e., when their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are being satisfied), when they have the time to commit to pedagogical endeavors, and when they are early in their teaching careers which can be useful for university administration to improve STEM educational experiences in their institutions.

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