Facilitating Change in Underrgraduate STEM Instruction:

OPTIONAL OPTIONAL
LOGO HERE Synthesis
y of Change
g Strattegies
g across Disciplines
p LOGO HERE

Andrea L. Beach and Charles Henderson, Western Michigan University

U - Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Problem Two Categorization Criteria Little Communication Within or Between Fields Category Labels
1. What does the change effort intend to directly impact? F
Focus on Changing
Ch i Individuals
I di id l
For decades, scholars in three primary fields have engaged in efforts 126 articles (47%) have no link to other articles in the database.

d Final Condition

Final Condition
to promote the use of instructional strategies in STEM subjects that Individuals Environments and Structures
Another 50 (18%) have only 1 link to another article in the database. Disseminating Developing
are consistent with current educational research.
research STEM Education The changeg intends to directlyy impact
personal characteristics of single
p The changeg intends to directly y impact
p extra-
individual characteristics of the system such
Curriculum & Reflective
Researchers (SER) have appointments in a STEM department or as a individuals, such as beliefs, knowledge, as rules, physical characteristics of the Pedagogy Teachers
STEM education specialist in a College of Education. Faculty behaviors, etc. environment, norms, etc.

Emergent F
Development Researchers (FDR) are connected with a center for

Prescribed
2. To what extent is the outcome prescribed in advance? Developing Developing
teaching and learning. Higher Education Researchers (HER) have Shared
Prescribed Final Condition Emergent Final Condition Policy
appointments
pp in a College
g of Education or are universityy
Vision
administrators. Efforts in all areas, despite significant funding and The desired final state for the individual or The desired final state for the individual or
environment is known at the beginning of environment is developed as part of the
study, have met with only modest success. Further, although the the change process. change process.
fields share an overriding goal
goal, the research generated by each rarely Focus on Changing Environment/Structures
“crosses over” to inform the others. Four Categories of Changes Strategies Relationship to Change Literature
Focus on Changing Individuals Curriculum &
This goall off thi
Thi this project
j t is
i to
t critically
iti ll review,
i iintegrate,
t t andd align
li the
th Less th
L than hhalf
lf (21/43) off the
th Reflective Teachers
Pedagogy
research literatures and perspectives of the SER, FDR, and HER Tell/teach individuals about new articles made any

ndition
Encourage/support individuals to develop 5/12 = 42%

dition
communities and identifyy promising g areas for future work. teaching conceptions and/or practices. new teaching conceptions and/or practices. connection with anyy 5/12 = 42%
e.g., dissemination
di i ti (SER
(SER, FDR)
FDR),

Final Cond
Prrescribed Final Con
e.g., reflective practice and action research change literature (despite a
Key Findings focused conceptual change (FDR) (FDR), curriculum development (SER) Policy Shared Vision
Citation network of all 267 articles with complete records. very liberal definition of
• Four core categories of change strategies.
strategies Color represents number of links.
links change literature
“change literature”)) 7/13 = 54% 4/6 = 67%

mergent F
Develop new environmental features Empower collective development of
• Change agents in each field primarily operate within only that require/encourage new teaching environmental features that support new
g
one or two of the four core categories. conceptions and/or practices. teaching conceptions and/or practices. Evidenced of Success

Em
e.g., policy change (HER), strategic f
e.g., institutional transformation (HER),
( )
• Little communication between or within fields. planning (HER) learning organizations (HER) Curriculum &
• Few change agents appear to treat the improvement of Reflective Teachers
Pedagogy
change strategies and theories as a scientific problem to 5/6 = 83% 1/11 = 9%
be solved: Focus on Changing Environment/Structures Only12/30 (40%) presented (2 success, 3 no success)
(All success)

ƒ Most articles do not reference anyy change

g literature Discipline of Authors Correlates with Strategy Choice at least moderate evidence
off success/lack
/l k off success. P li
Policy Sh d Vision
Shared Vi i
ƒ Most articles do not document the success (or failure) Focus on Changing Individuals
3/9 = 33% 3/4 = 75%
of change efforts (1 success, 2 no success) (All success)

Analysis
d Final Condition

More Information

Final Condition
A review of the literature on change
g strategies
g used in the improvement
p
of undergraduate STEM instructional practices identified over 300 http://www.wmich.edu/science/facilitating-change
htt // i h d / i /f ilit ti h
journal articles published in 176 distinct journals N=39 N=40 http://homepages.wmich.edu/~chenders
N 18
N=18 N 6
N=6

Emergent F
Prescribed

Preliminary results based on: •Henderson, C., Beach, A., Finkelstein, N., & Larson, R. S., (2008, June). “Preliminary
Categorization of Literature on Promoting Change in Undergraduate STEM”, Paper
•130 articles (randomly selected) to develop four categories of presented at the Facilitating Change in Undergraduate STEM symposium, Augusta, MI.
change
h strategies
t t i http://www.wmich.edu/science/facilitating-change/PreliminaryCategorization.pdf
•43 articles (subset of the 130) to characterize i) connections to •Henderson, C., Beach, A. Finkelstein, N., Larson R. S. (2008) “Facilitating Change in
Undergraduate STEM: Initial Results from an Interdisciplinary Literature Review”,
change literature and ii) strength of data presented Articles in the largest cluster with three or more links (N
(N=57).
57). Proceedings
g of the 2008 Physics
y Education Research Conference,, AIP Conference
•267 articles (all complete records) to develop citation maps Focus on Changing Environment/Structures Proceedings Volume 1064, p. 131-134.

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