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Understanding how instructional change works


Posted: Jan 22 2020 by
Stephanie Chasteen
University of Colorado at Boulder
Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Target Audience: Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff, In-Service K12 Teachers
Program Components: Professional Development:Pedagogical Training

Recommended article: "It's Personal: Biology Instructors Prioritize Personal Evidence over Empirical Evidence in Teaching Decisions," by Tessa Andrews and Paula Lemons, CBE-Life Sciences Education, 14 (2015).

I am involved in several projects which aim to help faculty learn about and implement effective teaching practices. To design or evaluate such programs, it's useful to have a model of how faculty take up new teaching practices. I want to highlight an article by Andrews and Lemons which recently influenced my thinking. (Note that Tessa Andrews co-leads ASCN Change Theories working group). One model that is often used in faculty change projects is the Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations model, which suggests that in order to adopt a new idea a person must become aware of it, be persuaded that it is useful, decide to use it, implement it, and then decide to continue to use it More

Inclusive Approaches to Reviewing Scholarship: A New Guide


Posted: May 29 2019 by

Brian Burt
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kathy Quardokus Fisher
University of Notre Dame
Naneh Apkarian
Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus
Naneh Apkarian (Western Michigan University)
Kathy Quardokus Fisher (Florida International University)
Brian A. Burt (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

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

The ASCN Guiding Theories Working Group is working on answering the question "How might we better support people's use of theories, models, and scholarship in their planned systemic change efforts?" The Breaking Down Silos working meeting (previously discussed on the ASCN blog) brought together scholars to discuss and organize existing theories and models of change from scholarship related to change in undergraduate STEM education. One of the discussions focused on representation, which in turn led to the development of the Guide to Inclusion Awareness in the Organization of Knowledge (Acrobat (PDF) 216kB May28 19), which is the subject of this post.

At Breaking Down Silos, the question of inclusion and exclusion arose. That is, what literature was included in the body of work considered to be relevant, and what was left out? Who was represented at the meeting (and in the working group), and who was not? Why? What are the resulting implications of these boundaries for our work? These questions are relevant across many contexts, and our discussions over the working meeting and beyond led to the creation of the Guide to Inclusion Awareness in the Organization of Knowledge (Acrobat (PDF) 216kB May28 19) document. It is a set of guiding questions to support inclusion and transparency in the creation of scholarly work. In this blog, we highlight and discuss some of the concerns about developing typographies or literature reviews that led to the development of this guide. More

2019 Transforming Institutions Conference Report


Posted: Apr 23 2019 by
Kate White
Temple University
Kate White (Western Michigan University), ASCN Research Director
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Institution Administration, Graduate Students, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Outreach:Presentations/Talks

The 2019 ASCN Transforming Institutions Conference brought together more than 140 researchers, faculty, change agents, and administrators to focus on transforming undergraduate education. We were pleased to include many excellent presentations, posters, workshops, and symposia in our program, some organized into our four tracks: aligning faculty incentives with systemic change (ASCN working group 6), change leadership (ASCN working group 3), equity and inclusion (ASCN working group 5), and guiding theories of change (ASCN working group 1). We'd like to share some highlights from the conference and feedback from our attendees -- keep reading for more! More

Funding Educational Change Projects: A Panel Discussion at the 2019 Transforming Institutions Conference


Posted: Apr 18 2019 by
Kate White
Temple University
Kate White (Western Michigan University), ASCN Research Director
Change Topics (Working Groups): Guiding Theories, Costs and Benefits
Target Audience: Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, College/University Staff, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Program Components: Outreach:Presentations/Talks

The panel on funding at the 2019 Transforming Institutions Conference featured two representatives from funding agencies: David Asai (Senior Director for Science Education, HHMI) and Andrea Nixon (Program Director, Division of Undergraduate Education and Co-Lead, Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program, NSF). Gita Bangera (Bellevue College, moderator) introduced our panelists, who started by discussing current initiatives at HHMI and NSF.

David Asai presented HHMI's new competition in the Inclusive excellence initiative; Andrea Nixon discussed NSF's programs in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR Core Research and Building Capacity in STEM Educational Research/BCSER) and their new solicitation for Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) grants in the Institutional and Community Transformation Track.

Our panelists answered audience questions and we share some of their responses below. More

Breaking Down Silos meeting contributes to the goals of Working Group 1


Posted: Feb 12 2019 by
Daniel Reinholz
San Diego State University
Tessa Andrews
University of Georgia
Tessa Andrews (University of Georgia) and Dan Reinholz (San Diego State University)
Change Topics (Working Groups): Guiding Theories
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Institution Administration, Graduate Students, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Program Components: Institutional Systems
Twenty-five researchers met for a 2.5-day meeting at the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at San Diego State University to discuss change theories. This working meeting was supported by a National Science Foundation conference grant (#1830897/1830860) and led by PIs Daniel Reinholz and Tessa Andrews. The meeting brought together early-career scholars to foster cross-disciplinary sense-making and collaborations around change theories. Meeting attendees included graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty of higher education, project advisors, and Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) faculty in the disciplines of mathematics, biology, physics, geoscience, chemistry, and engineering. More
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