Exploring Potential for Teaching-Related Learning in Science Departments: Informing Initiatives and Organizational Change Research

• In Event: 25.038 - Contemporary Considerations of STEM in Organizations of Higher Education

Abstract

Studying postsecondary education improvement initiatives is complex and more research is needed to understand how faculty take up teaching-related knowledge within their departmental and organizational contexts. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight science faculty from two departments to explore the potential for teaching-related learning at the beginning of an education improvement initiative. The results show how faculty create, transfer, apply, and retain teaching-related knowledge in current routines (e.g., department meetings). We discuss implications for initiative designers and implementers including: a) mapping the historical and current landscape of teaching-related routines; b) promoting multiple safe, egalitarian, inclusive, and formal and informal routines; and c) attending to the potential for postsecondary educator autonomy as both an affordance and a barrier to learning.

Authors

• Ellen Marie Aster, Oregon State University

• Jana Bouwma-Gearhart, Oregon State University

• Adam Lenz, Oregon State University