Sustaining the reformed curriculum required acculturating newly-hired faculty who would be teaching both content and pedagogy in ways different from their own physics learning experiences. When did these new faculty first learn about the Paradigms in Physics program? How did they make sense of what they were being asked to teach as they assumed responsibility for one of the paradigm or capstone courses? For those without much, or even any, prior teaching experience, how did they gain confidence and competence in teaching? How did they learn about what came before and what was coming after the course that they were now teaching? How free did they feel to make changes? These were issues discussed with eight new faculty members and a faculty visitor who chose to teach one of the junior paradigms courses. Their insights refer both to what they experienced here and what they wish had been provided. These are reported here as recommendations for others interested in undertaking and sustaining curricular reforms:

• Inform faculty candidates about the reformed curriculum during the hiring process
  • provide information about department teaching practices and curricular program
  • schedule session about teaching during interview process
  • describe and invite participation in the department’s community focused around teaching
• Provide overview of teaching strategies and reformed curriculum
  • schedule discussion of teaching strategies and reformed curriculum as part of department new faculty orientation
  • engage new faculty in interactive teaching strategies as learners
  • provide handouts that summarize philosophy and structure of reformed curriculum
  • clarify opportunities and responsibilities related to curricular reforms
• Provide resources for planning and teaching courses
  • give new faculty member a binder and electronic files with previous faculty member’s syllabus, course notes, directions for activities, and homework assignments
  • give new faculty member access to previous faculty member’s course website
  • guide new faculty member to additional resources that may exist such as department website describing courses and curriculum, papers describing curriculum, website providing details about specific teaching strategies and activities, videos of class sessions
• Assign new faculty a teaching assistant who is familiar with the course and curriculum
  • structure TA assignment to include meeting before class to discuss issues about which the TA can alert faculty member (e.g., likely student conceptual difficulties, possible troubles with equipment, and ways this content connects to previous and future topics)
  • expect TA to come to class and to participate in instructional roles such as assisting with small group activities
  • expect new faculty member to include TA in designing handouts, activities, and quizzes
  • ask TA to keep track of time required for activities to facilitate planning when teaching course again
  • structure TA assignment to include meeting after class to reflect upon what happened and to plan what needs to be prepared for next class session
  • encourage TA to document and discuss interesting aspects of student learning noticed while grading assignments

• Assign a mentor for teaching, who has taught course new faculty will be teaching
  • arrange regular time to talk about teaching philosophy and strategies beyond lecturing
  • arrange mutual observations and discussions about specific teaching experiences
• Encourage active investigation of purpose of content and pedagogical approach
  • identify original designer of course and arrange meeting with new faculty if feasible
  • introduce prior instructors and encourage multiple conversations during planning and teaching to gain better understanding of ways the course fits within the curriculum
  • encourage sitting in on classes taught by experienced faculty using interactive strategies
• Acknowledge that all instructors learn new material when starting to teach a new course or in a new way, that this is expected and normal.
  • emphasize that it is ok to admit not being familiar with X and need help understanding Y
  • provide resources for gaining expertise in areas that may seem problematic
• Schedule on-going faculty curriculum meetings
  • establish cycle of multiple curriculum meetings each term, separate from the regular all-faculty meetings (e.g., regular curriculum meetings for faculty teaching introductory courses, those teaching upper-division courses, and those teaching graduate courses)
  • create culture for curriculum meetings in which faculty expect to discuss what happened, changes made, student understandings and challenges noted during a course
  • encourage discussion of connections among courses, of dependencies upon what students learned in prior courses and will learn in future courses about topics being taught now
  • focus occasionally on strategies such as facilitating whole group discussions; initiating, monitoring, and reflecting upon small group activities; fostering student questioning
• Establish culture in which faculty are free to make changes, while aware of implications
  • encourage investment in improving instruction by clarifying content and designing innovative activities
  • request discussion of intended changes with colleagues knowledgeable of overall curriculum in order to become aware of possible implications of omissions or additions
• Set-up teaching triads
  • assign all faculty in groups of three to observe one another’s classes and then to meet and discuss whatever seems useful to ponder
  • make assignments with mix of teaching experiences and course levels with attention to needs of new faculty
  • start teaching triad process early in new faculty’s teaching experiences and separate this process clearly from teaching observations for promotion and tenure
• Offer teaching seminar for interested faculty and graduate students
• Encourage participation in conferences about teaching
  • provide funding to participate in new faculty workshops by professional organization
  • inform about local support for teaching such as workshops provided by an institution’s Center for Teaching and Learning
• Perhaps offer generic advice:
  • don’t answer a question the students don’t have yet
  • find ways to make it safe for students to say in class “I don’t know”
  • recognize that students are smarter than you think they are; they just know less than you think they do.