The CAE/CATS Guest Moderator Program: Fostering Better Astronomy Education Through Professional Discussions
Abstract
The Center for Astronomy Education (CAE; http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/)sponsors many professional development opportunities intended to aid astronomers in improving astronomy education. One of these activities is the Astrolrner@CAE listserv (astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/discussion), which is intended for everyone who is interested in improving college-level astronomy teaching and learning. Astrolrner@CAE is now over a decade old, with over 2700 posts from astronomy educators at numerous institutions. In order to ensure high-quality discussions, the listserv is moderated, and in 2007, CAE, through the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) program, created the Guest Moderator program. Guest Moderators are chosen from members of the greater CAE community. The program was created to elevate members of the CAE community who had shown themselves to be advanced in their pedagogical content knowledge through their own postings to Astrolrner@CAE. An additional goal was to create particular conversations about issues related to instruction by having Guest Moderators offer a monthly posting of instructional issues they, themselves, have been considering. We detail the insights gained from the first three years of the guest moderator program, and provide evidence of increased discussion due to this interaction. We acknowledge the NSF for funding under Award No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) Program.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #215
- Pub Date:
- January 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AAS...21544710F