Collaborative Research: Translating Research on How People Learn and Organizations Change to Accelerate Adoption of High Impact Practices Throughout a State University System

This project aims to serve the national interest by promoting broad adoption of high-impact educational practices that improve the recruitment, persistence, and success of students in STEM higher education, thereby developing a stronger, more globally competitive STEM workforce. Traditionally, STEM higher education has relied heavily on passive lecture courses focused on acquisition of disciplinary content knowledge. However, research on how people learn has shown that active, collaborative, and project-based learning improves student interest, motivation, and learning. Attempts to change the culture of STEM higher education have met with resistance when the focus is limited to changing individual faculty teaching behaviors. Like trying to change smoking or eating behaviors, knowing what to do is very different from knowing how to do it successfully. This Level 2 Institutional and Community Transformation project plans to address this challenge by providing multiple levels of professional development, as well as access to supporting peer networks and resources, so that as educators make improvements in their teaching, institutions also adjust their policies and infrastructure to recognize, value, support those changes. By effecting change at the level of individuals, institutions, and systems, the project plans to generate benefits for not only students and trainees, but also faculty and academic administrators at various career stages. In addition, lessons learned from this project are expected to advance our understanding about how to promote broad change in the culture of STEM teaching and serve as a model for other institutions and/or state higher education systems. This project seeks to translate research on (1) high-impact educational pedagogies and (2) institutional change strategies to promote broad adoption of effective, research-backed practices that enhance STEM workforce development. To advance this goal, the project uses a systems approach to promote adoption of evidence-based educational practices (e.g., active, collaborative instructional strategies) throughout The State University of New York (SUNY), one of the largest university systems in the U.S. This coordinated approach plans to deploy multiple proven levers for change at the levels of the individual, institution, and system. The research program plans to evaluate the implementation of this multifaceted, systems-oriented program to determine what works, and when and why a combination of levers fails to be sufficient. The planned activities are potentially transformative because they are designed to effect simultaneous and reinforcing changes at multiple levels, and which equip both teaching and research faculty with teaching strategies that have proven to improve student learning. At the same time, the implementation of these strategies will be supported and rewarded by institutional policies, procedures, and infrastructure that validate faculty effort and promote a shared vision of excellence in the integration of teaching and research. In cases where a combination of levers in the project may fall short, the shortcomings will still provide insight into the problem and inform next steps or modifications to the approach; where the approach succeeds, it will serve as a model for other institutions or university systems. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. 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.