NSF Award
1408849
The lack of systemic change in STEM education points to an important problem with the approach that the STEM education community has pursued thus far. Change has been targeted at the course and curriculum levels, focusing on teaching and learning methods and proving their efficacy (Borrego, Froyd, & Hall, 2010). While beneficial, these activities have not fostered the underlying strategies, motivation, communication, collaboration, and persuasion that are the foundation for change on larger, more institutional levels. These change strategies are well documented in the literature of other disciplines, such as organizational psychology and behavior, but have not been brought into the conversation within STEM education in a rigorous, accessible way. The workshop Making Academic Change Happen (MACH) fills the need of academics for research-based skills development and assistance in creating a plan for change. Through targeted working sessions on specific topics (e.g. partnership development, generating buy-in, institutional context, and identity discovery), participants learn research-proven strategies for making large scale change happen on their home campus. The MACH workshop helps faculty reach beyond their specific classrooms to effect the systemic change needed to advance STEM education consistent with a concert of national voices (for example, the National Academy of Engineering's Engineer of 2020; President Obama's Educate to Innovate program; AAU's Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative). By focusing on strategies, plans, and the institutional framework, participants in the MACH workshop become change agents.<br/><br/>A typical college or university faculty member is not trained as a change agent, yet policy, administrators, and students are calling for change, especially in STEM fields. The purpose of this workshop is 1) to assist faculty members in learning and practicing skills needed to lead change, and 2) prepare working documents around a variety of topics that are necessary to advance a change project. By fostering the development of these skills and mindsets in the very people who must lead change efforts, this workshop promotes meaningful change in STEM higher education. The change projects advanced by the workshop participants are expected to become model programs that can be mined for examples strategies and processes for others hoping to implement similar ideas. These projects reach beyond a single faculty member's classroom, focusing more on the underlying processes, approaches, or philosophy of STEM education enacted on their campus. By working within the institution's context, the change agents trained during the MACH workshop will positively impact the student experience of STEM.
