Uncovering Change Catalysts: Examining Community of Practice Members as They Leverage Individual Course Improvements to Achieve Systemic Departmental Change

This project aims to serve the national interest by identifying the kind of professional development and support faculty need to move beyond improving their individual courses and toward enacting systemic change at the departmental level. In the past 20 years, there have been numerous national calls to improve STEM education, and yet, there are few tangible examples of departmental and institutional successes or frameworks for how to achieve systemic change in academia. This project seeks to collect data on faculty experiences and perceptions as they leverage their desire to improve individual courses and move towards creating a culture that strives for departmental-level transformational change. Nationally, significant change in STEM education is much needed to improve student learning experiences and to meet the needs of a changing student population. Importantly, the data collected during this project will be used to develop a framework that other STEM departments can use to achieve departmental-level change. The Department of Biological Sciences at Fort Hays State University must better position itself to serve the needs of future STEM students. To enact change, this project will support faculty as they participate in a community of practice that provides professional development focused on building STEM reform leadership skills, increasing knowledge of change theory, and training faculty to implement course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Funds will also be used to purchase equipment and supplies to support the implementation of CUREs in biology courses. An external evaluation team will be hired to evaluate overall progress on project goals by documenting the department's transformation process, tracking participation in and the outcomes of the professional development, and collecting data on faculty experiences and perceptions during the change process. An internal research team will examine student experiences as curricular changes are implemented and will also collect data on student learning gains from CURE participation. This project aims to develop a framework that other STEM departments pursuing large-scale transformational change can use as a guide. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is jointly funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.