Collaborative Research: Characterizing the emerging field of departmental change and empowering an inclusive network of practitioners

该项目旨在通过促进对高等教育机构部门在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）本科教育转型中发挥的核心作用的理解来服务于国家利益。 基于团队为基础的制度变革模型，这个IUSE：EDU轨道2 -机构和社区转型1级项目调查成功的部门变革努力，以确定支持制度化和可持续性的有效战略和要素。 这项研究和开发工作是由国家路易斯大学、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校、科罗拉多州立大学和西密歇根大学的STEM从业者和研究人员进行的。 该项目建立了一个由STEM教师、机构管理人员、工作人员和教育研究人员组成的结构化网络，测试了一个假设，即以前专注于个别从业人员、研究人员或课程的努力在很大程度上是无效的。 项目团队认为，以团队为基础的变革模式和行动，重点放在部门作为变革的引擎，有可能建立和维持本科STEM教育的教学和学习的转变。 项目团队提出了一个双管齐下的项目：（1）一项景观研究，重点是本科STEM教育部门的变革项目，调查他们支持变革的方法，（2）促进一个包容性的社区网络，以分享调查结果和推荐的做法。 该项目的目标是描述（1）STEM部门变革项目的结构，方法和理论框架，以及（2）网络化部门变革代理的影响。 复杂和混合方法的研究和发展项目是由一个系统的方法，（a）是由一个组织的学习框架，（B）集成了批判性理论和公平/社会正义的方法，以更好地推进跨部门的转变知识的许多类型的学生群体和高等教育机构，人口的中学后教育企业的指导。 由一组研究问题的框架，该团队检查的数据和信息，包括文献/现有资源的系统性审查，和档案描述部门的变化努力，与主要项目负责人的访谈，和参与者的调查/访谈/观察语料库。 数据分析将通过演绎和归纳的跨案例方法进行指导，以分析定性数据和基于文本的信息，从而产生部分有序的元矩阵和堆叠案例方法，以支持聚类和浓缩案例。 该项目的变革理论和系统方法与所研究的现象和问题的复杂性完全一致。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 通过机构和社区转型轨道，该项目支持在高等教育机构和学科社区中改造和改善STEM教育的努力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by advancing understanding of the central role that departments in higher education institutions play in the transformation of undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Based on team-based models of institutional change, this IUSE: EDU Track 2 - Institutional and Community Transformation Level 1 project investigates successful departmental change efforts to identify effective strategies and elements that support institutionalization and sustainability. This research and development effort is being conducted by STEM practitioners and researchers from the National-Louis University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, and Western Michigan University. Establishing a structured network of STEM instructors, institutional administrators, staff, and education researchers, the project tests the hypothesis that prior efforts that focused on individual practitioners, researchers, or courses were largely ineffective. The project team posits that team-based change models and actions that focus on the department as the engine of change have the potential to establish and sustain the transformation of teaching and learning in undergraduate STEM education. The project team proposes a two-pronged project: (1) A landscape study focusing on undergraduate STEM education departmental change projects that investigates their methods for supporting change and (2) catalyzing an inclusive community network for sharing findings and recommended practices. The goals of the project are to describe (1) the structures, approaches, and theoretical frameworks of STEM departmental change projects and (2) the impacts of networking departmental change agents. The complex and mixed methods research and development project is guided by a systems approach that (a) is informed by an organizational learning framework and that (B) integrates a critical theory and equity/social justice approach to better advance knowledge on departmental transformation across the many types of student populations and institutions of higher education that populate the post-secondary education enterprise of the Nation. Framed by a set of research questions, the team examines a corpus of data and information that consist of a systematic review of the literature/existing resources, and an archive depicting departmental change efforts, interviews with key project leaders, and surveys/interviews/observation of participants. Data analyses will be guided by deductive and inductive cross-case approaches to analyzing qualitative data and text-based information resulting in a partially ordered meta-matrix and a stacking cases approach to support clustering and condensing cases. The project’s theory of change and systems approach are well-aligned with the phenomena under study and the complexity of the problem. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the project supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.