Short Course: Collaboration for Change

Reform efforts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education increasingly rely on collaboration from diverse stakeholders to achieve collective change goals. The basic premise is that initiatives can achieve more collectively than through individual siloed reform efforts. Yet, despite recent efforts to frame and even model productive collaboration (e.g., Collective Impact and networked improvement communities), our understanding of how to build collaborative STEM reform initiatives among diverse partners is still rather nascent (though certainly growing). In this webinar, the author will present the Dimensions of Collaborative Dynamics Framework, which identifies the key elements, related to motivation, group norms and processes, support resources, and leadership, that collaborative STEM reform initiatives need to pay attention to in advancing their collective change goals. The framework is the result of a synthesis of three decades of multidisciplinary research and literature regarding complex multi-institutional and multi-sector collaboration and partnerships.

Successful STEM projects, especially those aiming to influence cultural and structural changes, involve working across organizational levels (e.g., disciplines, departments, colleges, institutions). Funders and administrative directives encourage collaborative efforts but typically focus more on reform mission of the collaborative rather than the functional developmental components. Experience clearly shows there is more to creating and sustaining effective educational partnerships. First, using a partnership development model, this session will help participants identify challenges to partnership development and strategies to address them. Then, lessons learned will be shared from experiences connecting with colleagues across campus and suggestions offered on how to utilize a wide-range of team expertise in campus partnerships/teams. Participants interactively will explore practical steps that can help overcome challenges working in interdisciplinary teams. Next, this session will offer a look at research findings and insights from two multi-institutional collaborations, the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a network of 41 universities focused on preparing future faculty, and CIRTL's NSF INCLUDES launch pilot. Participants will learn what are the key activities and characteristics of individuals who can successfully span the boundary between their organization and a larger partnership collective in service to local and national reform goals.

Colleges and universities are increasingly under pressure to reach improved student success outcomes (e.g., improve student learning, increase retention and graduation rates, close equity gaps, shorten time to graduation) more quickly and at lower cost to the state and to their students. Programs in STEM education are frequently at the center of these efforts for a variety of reasons (workforce development, challenging gateway courses, direct connection to problem-solving, complexity of advanced skill development, tech-driven society, etc.). Responding to this pressure to achieve improved outcomes requires new ways of working together, knowledge sharing and collaboration. Solutions at the individual departmental level are no longer adequate; cross departmental and divisional collaborations will be necessary. Strategic and evidence-based approaches are also required to maximize impact and ensure success. While project leaders may have ideas of their own, they must learn to embrace concepts of shared leadership. In other words, they must move from "me" (my ideas) to "we" (our ideas). Leaders of all types must learn how to cultivate teams of people who share an interest in the issue, can use evidence to identify the problem, explore creative solutions, take risks (and possibly fail!) together, and develop new patterns of engagement and complementary experiences to develop a collective agenda for action. This approach builds ownership among the faculty and staff who are instrumental in implementing and sustaining the desired changes over time. It also enhances engagement of administrators who are also central to providing resources and support for the desired changes. Participants in this session will learn more about the benefits of shared leadership and how to develop the conditions required to build the capacity for shared leadership and success.

Many efforts to improve teaching in higher education focus on a few faculty members at an institution at a time, with limited published evidence on attempts to engage faculty across entire departments. In this webinar, we give an example of a program which achieved the widespread faculty engagement that is often lacking. We created a long-term, department-wide collaborative professional development program, Biology Faculty Explorations in Scientific Teaching (Biology FEST). Over three years of Biology FEST, 89% of the department's faculty completed a weeklong Scientific Teaching Institute, and 83% of eligible instructors participated in additional semester-long follow-up programs. We will share a variety of evidence showing that a majority of Biology FEST alumni adding active learning to their courses (including self-report, survey, and decibal analysis), that this engagement was sustained, as was a sense of belonging in the department. We will share insights from our change story for other campuses wanting to spark widespread change in teaching practices – including ways to move away from a "deficit" model of faculty learning, towards positive support of instructor professional identity.