Development of Best Practices for New Engineering and Math Educators

The objectives of this study are to (1) provide new engineering and math educators with the best teaching practices and (2) document improvements in the effectiveness of mentee’s teaching and in their student evaluation scores. The scope of the paper is limited to new educators’ teaching effectiveness. The innovative approach consisted of nine best practices. While these practices are not new, the way in which they are executed and integrated with each other is innovative. The innovative strategy improved the teaching effectiveness of the new educators by 15% at a statistically significant level. The innovative strategy improved the new educators’ student evaluations by 18.9% at a statistically significant level. Over the next five years, the authors plan to implement this strategy with more senior faculty and new educators. The method presented in this study may be used at other institutions with appropriate modifications in order to help new educators develop best teaching practices.