Teaching for PROWESS: Supporting and studying inter-institutional change
Monday
5:00pm - 6:30pm
Scandinavian 3/4 | Poster A3
Poster Presentation
Ann Sitomer, Oregon State University
karen gaines, AMATYC
Sylvia Valdes-Fernandez, Oregon State University
Teaching for PROWESS is a grant-funded (NSF IUSE 2013493 /2013232 /2012962 /2013550) five-year initiative to support instructional and department-level change in eight community college mathematics departments. The departments vary in size, the institutional structures of the colleges, and in the communities they serve. In addition, a professional society for community college mathematics faculty, the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), is the umbrella under which this change initiative is happening.
Each of the project's research objectives focuses at a particular level of change: the classroom, the department, and the system that includes AMATYC and the eight participating community colleges. This poster presents an emergent conceptual model being used to study and explain change at the system level. This model includes both practical and theoretical elements. Practical elements include project activities designed to foster collaboration within and between the eight colleges, and AMATYC resources used for both collaboration and the propagation of ideas between the colleges and towards the larger AMATYC community. Theoretical elements are grounded on theories of knowledge generation and movements in systems, both general theories such as learning in communities of practice and transformation (Goldstein, et al, 2018; Risien, 2019; Risien & Goldstein, 2021; Wenger, 1999; Wenger-Trayner, E. et al., 2014) as well as theories particular to higher education instructional change initiatives (Kezar, Gehrke & Bernstein-Sierra, 2018).
In addition to detailing the current configuration of our framework, we share preliminary findings that address two research questions: (1) What project activities support the generation and/or the movement of knowledge and why are these activities generative? and (2) In what ways do the structures and resources made available by the professional society support the movement of knowledge and change across the network of mathematics departments?
Each of the project's research objectives focuses at a particular level of change: the classroom, the department, and the system that includes AMATYC and the eight participating community colleges. This poster presents an emergent conceptual model being used to study and explain change at the system level. This model includes both practical and theoretical elements. Practical elements include project activities designed to foster collaboration within and between the eight colleges, and AMATYC resources used for both collaboration and the propagation of ideas between the colleges and towards the larger AMATYC community. Theoretical elements are grounded on theories of knowledge generation and movements in systems, both general theories such as learning in communities of practice and transformation (Goldstein, et al, 2018; Risien, 2019; Risien & Goldstein, 2021; Wenger, 1999; Wenger-Trayner, E. et al., 2014) as well as theories particular to higher education instructional change initiatives (Kezar, Gehrke & Bernstein-Sierra, 2018).
In addition to detailing the current configuration of our framework, we share preliminary findings that address two research questions: (1) What project activities support the generation and/or the movement of knowledge and why are these activities generative? and (2) In what ways do the structures and resources made available by the professional society support the movement of knowledge and change across the network of mathematics departments?