The effects of a teaching development institute for early career researchers on their intended teaching strategies,course design,beliefs about instructors’ and students’ knowledge,and instructional self-efficacy: The case of the Teaching Institute at Johns Hopkins University

Despite the importance of both research and teaching, doctoral and postdoctoral programs tend to focus on research. One approach to address the lack of teaching development for early career researchers (ECRs) is to train them on instruction. The purpose of this two-year study was to examine the effects of a Teaching Development Institute (TDI) on ECRs’ intended teaching strategies, course planning, beliefs about instructors’ and students’ knowledge, and instructional self-efficacy. We used the Approaches to Teaching (ATI) and the College Teaching Self-Efficacy (CTSE) instruments in a one-group pretest-posttest design. The sample was 109 and 140 ECRs who participated at the Teaching Institute at Johns Hopkins University in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The results of the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated that the TDI intervention was effective. The theoretical implications of the paper include (a) reinterpreting the ATI according to the interactive, constructive, active, and passive (ICAP) cognitive engagement framework, and (b) proposing the professional development to student achievement (PDSA) model.