Devon Quick
Ben and Elaine Whiteley Faculty Scholar for Teaching Excellence
Department of Integrative Biology
devon.quick@oregonstate.edu
Bio: Ultimately, my professional goal is to cultivate outstanding learning opportunities for both learners and teachers as their authentic selves wherever learning and teaching occur. I attempt to realize this goal working directly with students and colleagues as well as within institutional structures at OSU.
I implement evidence-based practices in my courses (backwards design, high structure, active learning, authentic assessments, and frequent formative feedback) and rigorously assess the impact of my interventions through analysis of student learning gains on assessments, course success rates, and student attitudes. Regarding student attitudes, I investigate their feelings towards the course and discipline, as well as their identity as scientists. As the lead organizer of the Learning Assistant Program, I also apply these same principles to my work with Learning Assistants (LAs), investigating science identity changes over time in our LAs and Biology students. I have presented these findings at several conferences since 2014.
As the leader of several faculty development efforts (Learning Assistant Program, HHMI InclusiveExcellence@OSU, SUMMIT-P grant), I seek to foster inclusive and evidence-based teaching approaches in all courses at OSU. In addition, in my work with the Faculty Senate Advancement of Teaching Committee, I led the work to re-examine what it means to teach well at OSU. Specifically, I organized a large, cross-campus group to investigate and make recommendations to change the ways in which teaching is evaluated at OSU (student evaluation of teaching, peer review, and dossier/teaching portfolio). The group’s final report articulated that any evaluation of teaching should be based on a shared set of values about teaching and learning that are also grounded in evidence-based practices, the Quality Teaching (QT) Framework.
Through the proposed CoSCIES project, I will foster evidence-based faculty practices linked to student success, empower my colleagues to grow and learn through SoTL, and help others become leaders.
