Collaborative Research: Understanding and Reducing Student Resistance as a Barrier to Faculty Change

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This WIDER research project focuses on understanding student resistance as a barrier to STEM faculty adoption of evidence-based teaching methods in the context of introductory engineering courses at University of Michigan, Virginia Tech, North Carolina A & T, and Bucknell University. The project is investigating three related research questions, including: 1) What factors (including faculty strategies, student experience, institution and course type, and student and faculty characteristics) influence student resistance to nontraditional teaching methods? 2) To what extent does expectancy violation theory explain student resistance to nontraditional teaching methods? and 3) What specific, evidence-based strategies (and in what contexts) can faculty employ to significantly reduce student resistance? To address these questions, the project team is employing rigorous instrument development procedures to design surveys to measure student resistance and expectancy violation, and conducting in-depth studies at a range of institutions, combining qualitative methods with quantitative surveys to identify additional factors related to student resistance. The final phase of the project includes a full-scale study of 20 introductory engineering courses. Expected products include evidence-based strategies faculty can use to reduce student resistance, student surveys that faculty can use to monitor their own progress in reducing student resistance, and a classroom observation protocol focusing on student resistance.