ISEE's Professional Development Program (PDP)
Preparing scientists and engineers to be leaders in effective and inclusive education
Not currently offered - Check back in Fall 2023
The PDP ran 2001-2020, and is aiming for a restart in 2024. Fundraising and planning are in-progress. Interested in donating: see ISEE’s giving page.
Please send an email to ISEE@ucsc.edu with questions about upcoming PDP events.
Impacts and recommendations from the PDP are summarized in an article published in 2022. CLICK HERE TO GO TO ARTICLE.
The ISEE Professional Development Program (PDP) is a flexible, multi-year program for scientists and engineers at the early stages of their careers, with a primary focus on graduate students and postdocs.
Participants receive training through two multi-day workshops, work on a team to collaboratively design an authentic and inclusive STEM learning experience, and then put their new teaching skills into practice in ISEE-affiliated educational programs or courses. The PDP has a rigorous approach that is designed to fit with participants’ demanding research schedules, and enable participation over many years. Click here for more details.
The PDP program has over 600 alumni, many of whom choose to complete more than one cycle of the program, and return to lead a team of new participants in designing and teaching an authentic and inclusive STEM learning experience. See past PDP teams HERE.
Two volumes have been published by the PDP community:
- Advancing Inclusive Leaders in STEM: Twenty Years of the Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators. (2022).
- Learning form Inquiry in Practice. (2011).
Alumni of the program have continued into academic and non-academic STEM positions throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Alumni report that they gain:
- Teaching and learning experience that is transformative
- Enhanced teaching qualifications that land jobs, awards, and promotions
- Improved professional skills (leadership, project management, communication)
- An advantage in fellowship and grant applications
- Unique experience in how to teach through inquiry
- A practical understanding of research on how people learn
- Strong foundation that supports many teaching and mentoring strategies
- A community that is dynamic, enduring, and rare
