Institutional Transformation through Large-Scale Implementation of Departmental Action Teams

该项目旨在建立一个机构范围内的迫切要求，以改善伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校所有科学、技术、工程和数学系的课堂气氛、教学质量和学位途径，该大学是一所广泛服务于拉美裔美国人的机构。许多机构转型努力不会对整个机构产生广泛影响，因为它们侧重于单一的课程或一小部分教师队伍。为了在一所大型、分散的大学完成制度转型，该项目将实施部门行动小组，由全校100多名教职员工组成，他们将在课堂上调查学生成功的障碍，并密切关注机构数据。部门行动小组将制定和实施个人行动计划，通过课程、教学和政策改革来解决已确定的障碍。这些团队的工作将得到校园一级的倡议的补充，该倡议传播高质量的教师专业发展，一致关注帮助教师实施基于证据的包容性教学实践。在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，该项目将改变大学，为学生和教职员工创造一个包容和高效的校园环境，反映学生将教师视为他们成功的倡导者的机构文化。机构变革的目标位于该项目的核心，将提供一个机会来研究部门行动小组提出的干预措施的有效性和由此产生的机构变革过程。该项目将以一所大型的、公共的、为少数群体服务的研究型大学的背景下尚未系统研究的方式，为组织变革理论作出贡献。项目研究人员将研究变革努力的演变，以找出变革的障碍和克服这些障碍的战略，因为每个部门都通过对每个团队的工作和UIC针对项目规划的教学文化的演变进行系统分析，提高其提供有吸引力和包容性的教学方法的能力。利用调查、观察方案和访谈，项目研究人员将遵循变革的目的论理论，为制度变革提供一个证据基础。这将包括展示同一所大学的多个学术部门单位的独特和共同的变革进程，以及这些进程如何在其他机构一级得到促进或阻碍。最后，传播计划呼吁编制一份在线路线图，为启动注重当地情况的数据驱动的变革努力提供指导方针。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。鉴于高等教育机构的不同性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法，以激励机构和社区的变革，并促进基础研究(I)关于学生参与式学习，(Ii)关于如何有效地多样化和增加对STEM的参与，以及(Iii)提高我们对如何建设高等教育机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将从这些方法中获得如何实现这些目标的新知识。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。

This project aims to establish an institution-wide imperative to improve classroom climate, instructional quality, and degree pathways in all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics departments at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a broad-access Hispanic-Serving Institution. Many institutional transformation efforts do not yield broad impact on an entire institution due to their focus on a single course or small cadre of teaching faculty. To accomplish institutional transformation at a large, decentralized university, the project will implement departmental action teams that involve over 100 faculty across the university who will investigate the barriers to student success in their classrooms with close attention to institutional data. Departmental action teams will develop and implement individual action plans to address identified barriers through curricular, instructional, and policy reforms. The work of these teams will be complemented by a campus-level initiative that disseminates high-quality faculty professional development with a concerted focus on helping faculty implement evidence-based inclusive teaching practices. Supported by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this project will transform the university to achieve an inclusive and highly productive campus environment for both students and faculty that reflects an institutional culture where students see faculty as advocates for their success.The goal of institutional transformation that lies at the heart of this project will present an opportunity to study both the efficacy of interventions proposed by the departmental action teams and the resulting institutional change processes. The project will contribute to theories of change in organizations in ways that have not been systematically studied in the context of a large, public, minority-serving research-extensive university. Project researchers will study the evolution of the change effort to identify barriers to change and strategies for overcoming those barriers as each department improves its capacity to deliver engaging and inclusive pedagogies by conducting a systematic analysis of the work of each team and the evolution of the teaching culture at UIC in response to project programming. Using surveys, observational protocols, and interviews, project researchers will produce an evidentiary basis for institutional transformation following a teleological theory of change. This will include demonstrating the unique and common change processes across multiple academic departments units at the same university and how those processes are facilitated or hindered at other institutional levels. Finally, the dissemination plan calls for the production of an online roadmap to provide guidelines for launching data-driven change efforts that are attentive to local contexts. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.