The Challenge of Change: Studying a Model for Transforming Courses, Instructors and Departments at a Research-extensive University

研究和评估（91）拟议的项目是一项混合方法研究，收集时间敏感的关键数据，记录课堂、教师和部门的变化，这是科罗拉多大学科学教育倡议（SEI）的一部分。它正在探索迄今为止所发生的变化的程度和性质，并试图理解这些变化发生的过程。这项研究的结果阐明了态度和文化的转变，这在个别教师价值观和部门内部都是必要的，这样才能广泛采用课堂实践，体现对学生如何最有效地学习的理解。这项研究正在探索两个研究问题。首先，个别教师的教学实践与他们对教与学的信仰体系之间的联系是什么，这些对采用基于研究的STEM教育方法的程度和速度有什么影响？其次，个别教师的信仰体系与影响采用研究型STEM教育方法的部门和机构结构和文化之间的联系是什么？研究设计采用嵌入式案例研究。正在研究五个系。每个都代表了一种教师信仰体系的文化。案例研究可以增加对复杂社会现象的理解，使调查人员能够保留过程或事件的整体和有意义的特征。其他社会科学方法，如实验，经常将现象与其背景分开，试图控制变量。然而，案例研究在现实生活背景下调查现象，因此能够更好地解释实现结果的社会和文化过程。

Research and Assessment (91)The proposed project is a mixed-methods study that is collecting time-sensitive and critical data that document classroom, faculty and departmental change that are part of the Science Education Initiative (SEI) at the University of Colorado. It is exploring the extent and nature of the changes made to date, and seeking to understand the processes by which these have come about. The results from this study are illuminating the attitudinal and cultural shifts necessary in individual faculty values and within departments to bring about widespread adoption of classroom practices that embody understanding of how students learn most effectively. The study is exploring two research questions. First, what are the linkages between individual faculty members' instructional practices and their belief systems around teaching and learning, and what consequences do these have for the extent and pace of uptake of research-based STEM educational approaches? Second, what are the linkages between individual faculty members' belief systems, and departmental and institutional structures and cultures that affect the uptake of research-based STEM educational approaches? The research design is using embedded case studies. Five departments are being studied. Each represents a culture of faculty belief systems. Case studies can increase understanding of complex social phenomena in a way that allows investigators to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of processes or events. Other social science methods, such as experiments, often separate a phenomenon from its context in an attempt to control variables. Case studies, however, investigate phenomena in their real-life context and are thus better able to explain the social and cultural processes by which outcomes are achieved.