Sustained teaching mentoring works and benefits mentors as well as those mentored: The Promoting Active Learning and Mentoring (PALM) Network

Many instructors and instructors‐to‐be have heard of the value of using active learning to guide students to deep learning of course material. Some have attended workshops or several‐day immersion experiences to learn how to employ effective active learning activities. In spite of best intentions, plans to actually implement active learning techniques often collapse once an instructor gets caught up in the academic year. To address this situation, ASCB, in cooperation with other professional societies and academic groups and with NSF funding, established the Promoting Active Learning and Mentoring (PALM) Network. This program provides PALM Fellows with a one‐on‐one teaching mentoring relationship for at least one semester with a mentor experienced in active learning. Participants to date have come from various partner societies within the Network. Analysis of teaching behavior before and after mentoring provides evidence that Fellows have been able to increase their use of active learning in accord with the specific objectives they had identified. Interviews with participants indicate that Fellows gain more confidence in their ability to apply active learning principles in future coursework, and mentors appreciate the opportunity to reflect on, refine, and expand their own practice of active learning approaches. Support or Funding Information PALM is supported through National Science Foundation RCN‐UBE #1624200. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .