Case Study
Advocating for Faculty Innovation
Based on work by:
Stephanie V. Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder
Katherine K. Perkins, University of Colorado Boulder
Intervention Types
Process
The University of Colorado-Boulder’s Science Education Initiative (SEI) is a university-funded project which aims to achieve highly effective, evidence-based education for students. To achieve these goals, the SEI supports work at the departmental level to transform undergraduate STEM courses by establishing what students should learn, determining what students are actually learning, and improving student learning using evidence-based instruction. The main features of the program are a departmental focus, and the hiring of science education specialists embedded within those departments to support this work. The outcomes of SEI work are diverse and include the transformation of specific courses, addressing department and institution cultural issues, researching the impact of pedagogical techniques on learning, and dissemination of course and related materials. This study focuses in detail on the SEI implementation process in the physics department (Chasteen and Perkins, 2014).
- Department heads and deans is key to “changing from within” and integrating evidence-based TEL and other instructional innovations.
- Domain-focused instructional specialists embedded in departments facilitate faculty adoption of such instructional practices.
- Stephanie Chasteen and Kathleen Perkins “Change from Within: The Science Education Initiative.” In Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM. Edited by Mark A. McDaniel, Regina F. Frey, Susan M. Fitzpatrick, & Henry L. Roediger, III. Washington University Libraries: St. Louis, Missouri 2014
