NSF Award
1631072
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. While beneficial, these activities have not fostered the strategies - such as motivation, communication, collaboration, and persuasion - that are necessary if individuals wish to enact change on larger, more institutional levels. These change strategies are well known but have not been brought into STEM education in a rigorous, accessible way. The workshop Making Academic Change Happen (MACH) fills the need for research-based skills development and assistance in creating a plan for change. Through targeted working sessions on specific topics participants learn research-proven strategies for making large scale change happen on their home campus. Our focus for the 2016 MACH Workshop is emerging engineering educators. The primary experience of graduate training is introduction to and acquiring competence in disciplinary research. We have determined, however, that new engineering educators are tasked with developing new courses, curricula, and programs. These initiatives require additional skills or areas of expertise: advising, mentoring, curriculum development, imaginative vision, program assessment, etc. None of these skills are likely addressed in a typical engineering Ph.D. curriculum. For these reasons, we argue that new engineering educators who envision themselves as change agents should work to adopt the disposition and skills of a change agent. Attending the MACH Workshop will help these educators start on their path as engineering education innovators.<br/><br/>The purpose of this workshop is 1) to assist emerging engineering educators 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 used as example strategies and processes for others hoping to implement similar ideas. These projects reach beyond a single 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.<br/><br/>As part of this research, we will interview the emerging engineering educators about their change projects and provide them with mentors and support for their change activities. We will continue to offer mentorship after the workshop is over, and we will keep track of their progress on their change projects as they implement the MACH change strategies they learned during the workshop.
