Workshop: Exploring Academic Unit Change at Two-Year Colleges

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该项目旨在通过发展和传播有关两年制大学创新、有效的变革过程和策略的知识，为国家利益服务。该项目将为各种对推进其学术单位的课程和文化变革感兴趣的两年制大学（2YC） STEM教职员工/管理人员团队召集一个由四部分组成的研讨会。讲习班活动将产生若干成果：1)研讨会对支持2YC背景下变革的流程和策略的共识建议，2)研讨会参与者认为有希望支持这种变革的一套精心策划的资源，3)在参与的2YC中实施的各种与变革相关的提高认识活动和变革项目，4)2YC STEM教师、员工和管理人员的自我维持网络，致力于推进学术单位层面的变革。5)向更广泛的2YC社区和高等教育变革社区分享研讨会成果的文章和其他传播产品。这些成果意义重大，因为到目前为止，大多数学术单位级的改进项目都集中在四年制大学背景下，而这个项目的重点是在两年级时对STEM教育进行系统改进。四场研讨会将在一年的时间内展开，以进一步实现项目目标：1)在2YC STEM学术背景下深入探索变革过程；2)支持参与2YC的团队与他们的单位或机构合作，参与与推进学术单位层面变革相关的本地项目。每次会议的长度为2-3小时，由代表至少15个不同机构的50名2YC教职员工和管理团队参加。会议主题旨在探讨了解2YC STEM单位的变革需求，概念化2YC有效的变革流程，分享参与2YC STEM单位的变革相关项目的计划和反馈，以及分享从实施项目中获得的成果和经验教训。总的来说，这些会议旨在促进STEM单位参与2YCs的变革努力，围绕2YCs所期望的变革类型产生新的知识，并确定哪些循证流程和结构最有可能有效地支持和维持这些背景下的变革。该项目团队将由两名具有专业发展经验的2YC STEM教师领导，并由具有循证制度变革专业知识的研究人员提供支持。研究人员计划在项目的计划、研究和评估活动中应用组织学习框架，以支持有效研讨会的设计，并综合研讨会参与者的贡献。组织学习框架有助于检查个人、团体和组织的因素和过程，这些因素和过程会影响组织接受和集成（或不集成）改变想法和计划的方式。该框架将支持车间工件的定性分析，以确定支持STEM单元在2年的变化的过程和结构。这项工作将有助于区分促进文化变革的进程，这种变革更有可能持续下去。项目小组和感兴趣的参与者打算合作，从讲习班系列中提出一致的建议和其他发现，并通过若干高等教育变革和两年制学院组织，包括加速系统变革网络、社区学院研究理事会和社区学院研究中心传播。美国国家科学基金会关于在两年制高等教育机构推进本科STEM教育的创新和影响的项目描述支持在两年制大学推进STEM教育计划的项目。该项目描述促进了两年制大学本科STEM教育的创新和循证实践。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and disseminating knowledge about innovative, effective change processes and strategies for two year colleges. The project will convene a four-part workshop for a wide variety of two-year college (2YC) STEM faculty/staff/administrator teams interested in advancing curricular and cultural change in their academic units. Workshop activities will result in several outcomes: 1) the workshop’s consensus recommendations on processes and strategies that support change in the 2YC context, 2) a curated set of resources that workshop participants find promising to support such change, 3) a variety of change-related awareness-raising activities and change projects, implemented at the participating 2YCs, 4) a self-sustaining network of 2YC STEM faculty, staff, and administrators engaged in advancing academic unit-level change, and 5) articles and other dissemination products sharing the workshop outcomes to the broader 2YC community and higher education change communities. These outcomes are significant because most academic unit-level improvement projects to date have focused on the four-year college context, whereas this project is focused on making systemic improvements in STEM education at 2YCs.The four workshop sessions will be spread across a year to further the project goals of 1) exploring change processes in-depth, in 2YC STEM academic contexts and 2) supporting participating 2YC teams in engaging their units or institutions in a local project related to advancing academic unit-level change. Each session intends to be 2-3 hours in length and be attended by 50 2YC faculty, staff, and administrator teams, representing at least 15 different institutions. Session topics aim to explore understanding 2YC STEM unit change needs, conceptualizing effective change processes at 2YCs, sharing plans and feedback around change-related projects at participating 2YC STEM units, and sharing results and lessons learned from implemented projects. Overall, the sessions seek to promote change efforts in STEM units in participating 2YCs, produce new knowledge around the types of change that are desired at 2YCs, and identify which evidence-based processes and structures are most likely to be effective at supporting and sustaining change in these contexts. The project team will be led by two 2YC STEM faculty members with professional development experience and supported by researchers with expertise in evidence-based institutional change. Researchers plan to apply the organizational learning framework across the project’s programs, research, and evaluation activities to support the design of an effective workshop and to synthesize the contributions of workshop participants. The organizational learning framework helps examine the individual, group, and organizational factors and processes that influence the ways change ideas and initiatives are received and integrated (or not integrated) by an organization. The framework will support a qualitative analysis of workshop artifacts to identify processes and structures supportive of change in STEM units at 2YCs. This work will help distinguish processes enabling cultural changes, which are more likely to be sustained. The project team and interested participants intend to collaborate on writing up consensus recommendations and other findings from the workshop series to be disseminated through a number of higher education change and two-year college organizations, including the Accelerating Systemic Change Network, the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, and the Community College Research Center. The NSF program description on Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-year Institutions of Higher Education supports projects that advance STEM education initiatives at two-year colleges. The program description promotes innovative and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges.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.