Examining Faculty Mindset Before and After Professional Development

In this session we will discuss several examples of faculty who engaged in professional development pertaining to equity-based teaching. I will report on the results of a student examining faculty mindset change before and after the professional development experience, and again after they implemented a deliverable in their classroom.

Reflections indicated that the professional development experience help faculty rediscover the humanist aspect of teaching, including ways to specifically center relationships, trust and empathy as a precursor to the engagement of content.

Bryan Dewsbury, Ph.D. 

Bryan Desbury headshot

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Florida International University


Bryan Dewsbury is an Associate Professor of Biology at Florida International University (FIU). He is the Principal Investigator of the Science Education and Society (SEAS) research program, which blends research on the social context of teaching and learning, faculty development of inclusive practices, and programming in the cultivation of equity in education. He is an Associate Director of the STEM Transformational Institute where he directs the Division of Transformative Education. He is also a Fellow with the John N. Gardner Institute where he assists institutions of higher education cultivate best practices in inclusive education. He is the creator and executive producer of the Massive Open Online Course called Inclusive Teaching. He is a co-editor of the book the Norton Guide to Equity Minded Teaching. He has led faculty development workshops in over 150 institutions across North America, Europe and Western Africa. Dewsbury grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and immigrated to the United States in 1999. He received a BS in biology from Morehouse College and an MS and PhD in biology from FIU.