P26 - A View from the Shadows: The IRACDA BETTR Program as a Framework to Develop Teaching Skills in Postdoctoral Scholars

Program Abstract: The pressures and time constraints on tenure-track STEM faculty to excel at research, teaching, and service usually leave little room for teaching improvement. Given these systemic cultural issues in higher education, future tenure-track faculty need better models to balance the three pillars of academia. The teaching training framework developed within the Bronx-Einstein Training in Teaching and Research (BETTR) Program, a member of the NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) (K12) postdoctoral program, provides participants with formal training in research and mentoring in pedagogy from faculty who serve predominantly underrepresented minority students. The BETTR program utilizes a robust teaching development program that allows participants to shadow faculty at partner institutions, discuss observed faculty teaching styles, take a pedagogy course, teach at a partner institution, and reflect on their teaching practices. This poster shares this model and discusses how the BETTR framework supported the pedagogical development of program participants.