Anton E. Lawson

Department of Biology, Arizona State University

The Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored program aimed at improving undergraduate science and mathematics instruction at Arizona State University (ASU) and in the surrounding community colleges. The primary reform mechanism has been summer workshops in which college faculty experience reformed teaching methods and then attempt to implement those methods in their courses. The reformed methods are based on the principles of effective teaching introduced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science for All Americans (1989). In turn, the AAAS teaching principles (see Box A-1) are based on learning theory derived from years of cognitive research. That theory posits that learning results from active, learner-centered inquiry in which students construct new concepts and conceptual systems by connecting new information and concepts to what they already believe. Further, effective learning often requires restructuring, or even discarding, previous concepts and beliefs when they prove incompatible with, or contradictory to, new evidence and new concepts (e.g., Alexander and Murphy, 1999).

The ACEPT program has attempted to incorporate reformed teaching methods into several courses for nonmajors and majors. These include

Front Matter (R1-R12)

1 Introduction (1-9)

2 Identifying Desired Student Learning Outcomes (10-24)

3 Evaluating Effective Instruction (25-49)

4 Promoting Effective Instruction at Departmental and Institutional Levels (50-68)

5 General Discussion (69-77)

6 Epilogue (78-81)

References (82-86)

Appendix A: Commissioned Papers (87-126)

Appendix B: Reference Paper (127-139)

Appendix C: Workshop Agenda (140-143)

Appendix D: Workshop Participants (144-147)

Appendix E: Biographical Sketches of Workshop Attendees (148-164)