Furthering the Work of STEM Undergraduate Transformation: Modeling Instructional Change Teams

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源(IUSE：EHR)的支持下，该项目旨在通过制定指导意见来服务于国家利益，指导如何为改进本科STEM课程建立成功的团队。德克萨斯州立大学圣马科斯分校与西密歇根大学合作，提议捕捉成功的教学变革团队如何发展和运作的关键要素。关于如何教授好STEM课程，有大量的研究可用。然而，过去许多促进研究型教学的努力都集中在个别教师身上，限制了这些努力的影响。相反，专注于教学变革团队可能会在STEM课程中产生广泛、持续的改进。虽然团队可以利用许多人的力量和专业知识为一个共同的目标而工作，但并不是所有的团队都是成功的。此外，很少有研究考察正在努力实现教学变革的团队。这个项目的研究人员将模拟团队设置和过程的要素如何影响本科STEM课程的持续改进。该项目旨在提供建议，以指导管理人员和改革领导者设计和实施以团队为基础的教学改革举措。作为这项研究的起点的模型是在先前的定性研究中开发的，并将来自多个学科的研究与项目负责人和团队成员的访谈证据结合在一起。在先前工作的基础上，该项目将根据以下几个方面评估教学变革团队的有效性：1)教学变革的可持续性；2)教学、协作和个人变革层面的变革质量。这些措施将作为团队投入的一项功能进行审查，包括任务的性质、谁参与、流程限制、外部参与和获得资源的机会。这项分两个阶段进行的混合方法研究将诊断哪些因素会导致理想的团队结果。第一阶段将开发一种可靠的调查工具，量化团队投入的关键要素、团队协作的性质和团队结果。第二阶段将分析来自不同机构的许多团队的调查数据，以测试团队间差异的影响。这些结果将被用来产生关于如何加强基于团队的教学变革工作的基于研究的建议。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型轨道，该计划将支持高等教育机构和学科社区改造和改进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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by developing guidance about how to build successful teams for improving undergraduate STEM courses. Texas State University at San Marcos, in collaboration with Western Michigan University, proposes to capture the key elements of how successful instructional change teams develop and function. A significant body of research is available about how to teach STEM courses well. However, many past efforts to promote the use of research-based teaching have focused on individual instructors, limiting the impact of these efforts. Focusing instead on instructional change teams could generate widespread, sustained improvements in STEM courses. Although it is well established that teams can harness the power and expertise of many people working towards a common goal, not all teams are successful. In addition, few research studies have examined teams that are working toward instructional change. The investigators in this project will model how elements of team setup and process can affect achievement of sustained improvements to undergraduate STEM courses. The project intends to provide recommendations that could guide administrators and change leaders in the design and implementation of team-based instructional change initiatives. The model that serves as a starting point for this research was developed in a prior qualitative study and combines research from multiple disciplines with evidence from interviews with project leaders and team members. Building off that prior work, the project will evaluate the effectiveness of instructional change teams based on: 1) the sustainability of instructional changes; and 2) the quality of changes at the instructional, collaboration, and individual change level. These measures will be examined as a function of the team inputs, including the nature of the task, who participates, process constraints, external engagement, and access to resources. The two-phased, mixed-methods study will diagnose what factors lead to desirable team outcomes. Phase 1 will develop a reliable survey instrument that quantifies key elements of the team inputs, the nature of the team's collaboration, and the team outcomes. Phase 2 will involve analyzing survey data from many teams across different institutions to test the impact of variations across teams. These results will be used to generate research-based recommendations about how to strengthen team-based instructional change work. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program will support 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.