Testing a Model for Transforming STEM General Education at Liberal Arts Schools

Depauw University, Greencastle IN

Investigators

Abstract

This project's goal is to test an integrated bottom-up/top-down model of institutional reform within a college of liberal art's STEM division. The broad strategy is to provide momentum to fuel a transition from an active "mobilization" stage of this faculty-driven initiative to subsequent stages: "implementation" and then "institutionalization." Initial grassroots efforts have led to base-level support for division-wide engagement of this goal. This model of change is focused on moving the STEM faculty towards significant course transformation reflective of the growing evidence base indicating "what works" while simultaneously developing a productive STEM learning community. This will be accomplished partly through curriculum reform awards that would be made to individuals or faculty teams to redesign their courses or to develop new, team-taught interdisciplinary courses. Linked to the awards are "best practices" pedagogical workshops that also engage interdisciplinary faculty teams from other institutions. This project is building on the work of Ann Austin [Promoting evidence-based change in undergraduate science education. Paper presented at the Fourth Committee Meeting on Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research, 2011] and Susan Elrod and Adrianna Kezar [Facilitating interdisciplinary learning: Lessons learned from Project Kaleidoscope. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, Jan-Feb 2012]. The institution itself will add additional diversity to the group of institutions supported by EHR grants working to achieve institutional transformation.