Blog

What we wish we would have known about theories of change and change theory at the beginning


Posted: Dec 7 2023 by

Laura Muller
The Jackson Laboratory
Melissa Eblen-Zayas
Carleton College
Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Carleton College and Laura Muller, The Jackson Laboratory

Change Topics (Working Groups): Change Leaders, Guiding Theories
Target Audience: Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Post-doctoral Fellows, College/University Staff

Six years ago when we first met, we were two individuals who identified a common challenge on our campuses – namely supporting students who arrived with varying comfort and experience using quantitative (Q) skills in STEM and social science contexts. Talking with others, we were eager to think about how we might collaborate to do better for our students. We wanted to make a change, but change theories or theories of change? We didn't know what those were! As we have learned about change strategies and change theory over the last six years, we've repeatedly come across ideas that make us think, "Wow, we wish we would have known this when we started this project!" This post is an effort to share some of what we've learned with other practitioners who might be trying to change things on their own campuses. More

Intentionality, Accountability, and Growth: Insights and future directions from DEIJR symposia facilitated at national meetings of the American Chemical Society


Posted: Oct 3 2023 by

Guizella Rocabado
Southern Utah University

Stephanie Feola
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Stephanie Feola, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Guizella Rocabado, Southern Utah University

Author Note: This is two of two blog series. This second post was written by Stephanie Feola.

Change Topics (Working Groups): Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Graduate Students, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Program Components: Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion

Creating space for discussions and presentations about issues of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Respect (DEIJR) is a means of building momentum for systemic change in discipline-based education research (DBER) communities. In this two-part blog, I, Stephanie Feola, and co-organizer Guizella Rocabado will share the lessons we've learned throughout this change process. In the first installment, we described the lessons learned from instituting the change of creating a space for DEIJR research and conversations during the American Chemical Society National Meetings. In this second installment, we share how the focus of the presentations, the nature of the discussions, and theorizing about DEIJR have changed since we began organizing the symposium in 2019 and draw implications for systemic change. More

Announcing the Curated Teaching Evaluation Change Initiative Repository


Posted: Sep 15 2023 by

Casey Wright
Western Michigan University
Stephanie Salomone
University of Portland
Sharon Homer-Drummond, PhD
Tri-County Technical College
Carlos Goller
North Carolina State University
Christine Broussard
University of La Verne

Christine Broussard, University of La Verne

Stephanie Salomone, University of Portland

Carlos Goller, North Carolina State University

Sharon Homer-Drummond, PhD, AAAS

Casey Wright, Western Michigan University

*Author Contribution Note: All Authors contributed equally to this post.

Change Topics (Working Groups): Faculty Evaluation
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Professional Development:Course Evaluation, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Evaluating Teaching, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion

The Aligning Faculty Incentives with Systemic Change Working Group is excited to report we havecurated a repository of teaching evaluation change initiatives to support national efforts at the systemic change of faculty teaching evaluation.  Teaching evaluation is an area of critical focus for systemic change efforts to align undergraduate students' experience in STEM courses with best practices for inclusive learning (NASEM, 2020; Boyer 2030 Commission, 2023). Since the academy is deeply resistant to change (Wise et al., 2022), it is critical to share innovations that have successfully impacted teaching evaluation with the systemic change community (e.g., Simonson et al., 2023). We have created the Curated Teaching Evaluation Initiative Repository to meet this need. For the repository, we define an initiative as a concerted program or set of related efforts that have been undertaken to change the policies, processes, or practices around teaching evaluation. These initiatives are not limited to resources for individual faculty to change their teaching practices but instead describe efforts that have been successful in creating systemic change. More

Creating space for critical conversations in chemistry: Lessons Learned from organizing DEIJR Symposia at national meetings of the American Chemical Society


Posted: Sep 13 2023 by

Guizella Rocabado
Southern Utah University

Stephanie Feola
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Guizella Rocabado, Southern Utah University

Stephanie Feola, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Author Note: This is one of two blog series. This first post is written by Guizella Rocabado.

Change Topics (Working Groups): Change Leaders, Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Underrepresented Minority Students, College/University Staff
Program Components: Professional Development:Accessibility, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Outreach:Presentations/Talks

Creating space for discussions and presentations about issues of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Respect (DEIJR) is a means of building momentum for systemic change in discipline-based education research (DBER) communities. In this two-part blog, I, Guizella Rocabado, and co-organizer Stephanie Feola, will share the lessons we've learned throughout this change process. In this first installment, we will describe the lessons learned from instituting the change of creating a space for DEIJR research and conversations during the American Chemical Society National Meetings. In the second installment, we will share how the focus of the presentations, the nature of the discussions, and theorizing about DEIJR have changed since we began organizing the symposium in 2019 and draw implications for systemic change.

More

2023 Transforming Institutions Conference Takeaways


Posted: Aug 15 2023 by

Casey Wright
Western Michigan University
Casey Wright, Western Michigan University

Change Topics (Working Groups): Communication, Assessment, Guiding Theories, Policy, Change Leaders, Costs and Benefits, Faculty Evaluation, Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Institution Administration, Teaching/Learning Assistants
Program Components: Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Institutional Systems:Incentive/Reward Systems, Supporting Students:Learning Communities, Professional Development:Accessibility, Supporting Students:Student Engagement, Institutional Systems:Evaluating Teaching

The 2023 Transforming Institutions Conference was held June 12-13, 2023, in Minneapolis, MN. With this most recent convening, we are proud to have brought together change researchers and change agents for 12 years. The meeting was made possible by the efforts of a conference planning committee consisting of 10 change agents convened by NSEC (Network of STEM Education Centers) and ASCN (Accelerating Systemic Change Network), supported by 40 reviewers from the systemic change community. Now that the dust has settled, we would like to share some key takeaways, attendee feedback, and future conference plans to continue to build momentum for our community to thrive with change. More

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