Impact of industry experience on faculty teaching practices in stem

Abstract

As part of a larger study of how problem-solving, communication, and teamwork are integrated into STEM education, we examined how industrial work experience impacts faculty teaching practices around those same competencies. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 92 educators in four broad fields, including energy, healthcare, computing, and advanced manufacturing. Educators’ industrial experience ranged from no prior experience to a decade or more of industrial experience, which largely depends on STEM field. This paper will report findings from preliminary analysis with six educator interviews in energy and advanced manufacturing. Industry work experience greatly influenced educators’ perceptions of the competencies as well as teaching strategies. Instructors with rich industry experience often include more descriptive examples of industrial applications when defining those skills, use industrial-specific tasks to inspire the design of classroom activities, and utilize their industry work experience to help formulate course structure.