The Challenges of Institutional Change: Lessons Learned From an Undergraduate STEM Instructional Reform Project

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming STEM Systems Toward Equity

Abstract

Despite substantial research validating active learning strategies to improve student outcomes, reduce achievement gaps, and better serve underrepresented students, they have not been widely incorporated in undergraduate STEM classrooms. Efforts have increasingly focused on institution-level interventions to drive this transformation. This paper will share results from an eight-year, NSF-funded project at a large urban research university to reform STEM teaching. We will reflect on our lessons learned by considering our experiences through the lens of Henderson et al.’s (2011) Four Categories model (which framed our project), as well as other change theories and perspectives. Finally, we discuss how change leaders in STEM and other contexts can benefit from an eclectic approach to change that incorporates multiple lenses on the process.

Authors

• Alisa Hutchinson, Wayne State University

• Karen Myhr, Wayne State University

• Asli Ozgun-Koca, Wayne State University

• Sara E. Kacin, Wayne State University

• Peter Hoffmann, Wayne State University