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

研究和评估（91）拟议的项目是一个混合方法的研究，收集时间敏感和关键的数据，记录教室，教师和部门的变化，是科学教育计划（SEI）的一部分，在科罗拉多大学。它正在探索迄今为止所作的变化的程度和性质，并试图了解这些变化的过程。从这项研究的结果是照亮个别教师的价值观和部门内的必要的态度和文化转变，带来广泛采用的课堂实践，体现了学生如何最有效地学习的理解。本研究探讨了两个研究问题。 首先，教师个人的教学实践与他们围绕教学和学习的信仰体系之间有什么联系，这些对基于研究的STEM教育方法的吸收程度和速度有什么影响？ 第二，教师个人的信仰体系与影响基于研究的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。正在研究五个部门。每一个都代表着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。其他的社会科学方法，如实验，经常将一种现象从其背景中分离出来，试图控制变量。然而，案例研究是在现实生活背景下调查现象，因此能够更好地解释取得成果的社会和文化进程。

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.