AOC: Social Dynamics of Campus Change: Creating an Interdisciplinary Research Agenda

美国国家工程院（NAE）工程教育奖学金促进中心（CASEE）与美国社会学协会（阿萨）合作，将于2006年初举办为期两天的全国研讨会，共有18名工程学院和社会学研究人员参加跨学科工作组，以开发模型，假设，和研究设计，以调查社会动态，包括社会和组织的过程，这应该提高扩散和接受“新的工程课程和教学法。“研讨会的目的是开发模型，以探索对社会动态的理解是否可以增加对强化课程和教学方法的接受和传播。 工程教育工作者和社会学家可以共同或单独探索这些研究问题。每个研讨会与会者将参加三个轨道之一，以开发以下类型的基本问题：新知识，课程和教学实践如何获得合法性，并传播？ 个人和机构传播和变革的障碍和促进因素是什么？ 哪些假设需要检验？我们从研究和实践中知道了什么？我们需要知道什么才能回答这些问题？ 会议的结果将被记录在一个特殊的专著由阿萨和CASEE联合发布的工程院长，艺术和科学院长，并选定的专业协会。 预计研讨会与会者将产生更多的研究建议和学术文章。

The Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), working in collaboration with the American Sociological Association (ASA), is holding a two-day national workshop in early 2006 that brings together a total of 18 engineering faculty and sociological researchers in a cross-disciplinary working group to develop models, hypotheses, and study designs to investigate the social dynamics, including the social and organizational processes, that should improve the diffusion and acceptance of "new engineering curricula and pedagogy." The intent of the workshop is to develop models that will allow exploration of whether an understanding of social dynamics can increase acceptance and diffusion of enhanced curricular and pedagogical methods. Engineering educators and sociologists may explore these research questions, jointly and separately. Each workshop attendee will participate in one of three tracks to develop the following kinds of underlying questions: How does new knowledge, curriculum, and pedagogical practice gain legitimacy, and spread? What are the impediments and the facilitators of individual and institutional diffusion and change that can be modeled? What hypotheses need to be tested? What do we know from research and practice and what do we need to know to answer these questions? The results of the meeting will be documented in a special monograph jointly issued by the ASA and CASEE to deans of engineering, deans of arts and sciences, and selected professional associations. It is expected that workshop attendees will generate additional research proposals and scholarly articles.