Learning Communities as Engines of Innovation in STEM Education

1. Learning Communities as Engines of Innovation in STEM Education Norman L. Fortenberry, Sc.D. Director, CASEE Learning Communities for STEM Academic Achievement Howard University April 24, 2007

2. A Learning Community • Is a group of trans-disciplinary faculty, graduate students and professional staff group engaging in an active, collaborative, program of study about enhancing teaching and learning. • Is a collegial group of of faculty and staff united in their commitment to student learning and working collaborative to enhance their own learning in pursuit of that vision. • Explores how communities of learners can motivate and support one another's learning experiences. • [community of practice] is a joint enterprise of socially negotiated mutual engagement focused on a topic continually renegotiated by its members that seeks to develop, over time, a shared repertoire of routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, style, etc.

3. Why a Learning Community in STEM Education? • The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is of increasing concern in STEM disciplines. • Discipline-based education research is also emerging within STEM fields. • The aims are • To better communicate the joy of STEM study to new populations • To better attract and retain new populations in STEM study • To better prepare STEM professionals to meet the multi-faceted challenges of the new millennium • Better prepare faculty to foster the learning needed to the new millennium

4. Boyer’s Definition of Scholarship • Discovery • Application • Integration • Teaching – reflective practitioner • All three can be forms of scholarship are relevant for STEM discipline-based education: • Research on education • Teaching • Synthetic meta analysis • Faculty (self-)Development Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered, CFAT (1990)

5. CASEE’s Role • Foster excellence in the engineering workforce by enabling improvements to the effectiveness, engagement, efficiency of engineering education such that it better meets the needs of employers, educators, students, and society. • Use a research and development approach. • Build Communities • Advance Knowledge • Transfer Knowledge to Improved Practice

6. CASEE Communities • Research Activities • Research Community and Corresponding Centers • Senior Fellows, Post-docs, Scholars-in-Residence • Annals of Research of Engineering Education (on-line) • Strengthening HBCU (and HSI) Engineering Education Research Capacity • Implementation Activities • Implementation Network • Peer Reviewed Research Offering Validation of Effective and Innovative Teaching (on-line) • Instructional Metrics • Diversity Metrics • Dissemination Activities • Dissemination Channels • Engineering Education Leadership Institute • Engineering Equity Extension Service • CASEE Chronicles • DISTILATE e-newsletter

7. CASEE:“Fostering Research-Based Practice in Engineering Education” Dissemination Channels ACADEME Post- docs Research Community EEES AREE Senior Fellows DIVERSE GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE 21ST CENTURY ENGINEERING WORKFORCE PR2OVE-IT INDUSTRY MSI Project EELI INCREASE KNOWLEDGE Implementation Network BUILD R & D CAPACITY SHARE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORM ENGINEERING EDUCATION GOVERNMENT BUILD COMMUNITY DISTILATE PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES Chronicles CASEE Annual Meeting

8. SHEERC - A CASEE Community • OBJECTIVE: Enhance ability of engineering faculty from HBCUs and HSIs to engage in rigorous engineering education research. • OUTCOMES: • Campus teams of engineers and social scientists formed • Three “classes” of faculty from the 11 HBCUs engineering colleges and 12 HSIs with highest engineering graduation rates participated in • Workshops on conducting rigorous research on engineering education • Seminars on building effective STEM learning environments • CASEE annual meetings to network with other innovators • 2004, 2005, and 2006 FIE and 2006 and 2007 ASEE annual meetings • Engineering deans produced campus plans to build upon faculty experiences

9. Guiding Principles • Focus on education research as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning. • Work with those with relevant expertise from the social, learning, and education sciences disciplines.

10. Education as a Transformation Process Goals/objs of Depts, Univs, Prof. Socs, Emplrs, etc. Goals/Objectives: Depts., Univs., Prof. Societies, Employers, etc. Tools (e.g., Curriculum, Labs, Technology, etc.) Teachers & Learners Constraints and Ext. Influences Constraints and Ext. Influences Tools (Curriculum Labs, Tech, etc.) Teachers & Learners Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Processes Teaching and Learning Processes Input Output Transformation Process Model Inspired by Hubka and Eder (1988)

11. A Lesson Learned • Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Processes Cognitive Science can inform effective instructional practices (e.g, The National Academies published How People Learn and highlighted the classroom implications) •  CASEE Community Activities CASEE is partnering with the EngineeringPathway Digital Library to provide improved access to its free resource on instructional interventions, assessment practices, and student learning outcomes: http://www.pr2ove-it.org

12. A Lesson Learned • Educational Tools Educational progress is promoted by thematic coherence and reduced competition among courses. (van der Hulst & Jansen, Higher Education. 43:489-506, 2002) •  CASEE Community Activities ASCE is piloting a new Body of Knowledge in a sample of civil engineering departments.

13. Two Lessons Learned • Teachers and Learners • Faculty are reluctant to engage in SOTL activities if it is not clear how such activities will be rewarded • Sociology/Psychology (e.g., Literature on stereotype threat on how sensitive it is to positive and negative triggers – Cohen et al. Science 313 (5791) pp. 1307-1310 & Steele and Ambady Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40 (2004) pp. 401-408http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~jmitchel/research/2004_Ambady_stereotypeThreat_JESP.pdf •  CASEE Community Activities • CASEE is working on metrics of instructional scholarship • CASEE’s EEES project is building an on-line library related to research-based practices in gender equity at http://eees.nae.edu/

14. A Lesson Learned • Management and Goal Systems Engineering curricula are shaped by an array of, sometimes competing, stakeholder groups both within and outside of the department and university. (Silar and Johnson, ASEE 2004) •  CASEE Community Activities The Dane and Mary Louise Miller Symposium brings together a variety of constituencies to share common ground and build shared understanding

15. A Lesson Learned • Constraints and External Influences A group at Duke has been questioning the number and quality Chinese and Indian engineers (it’s only 200K not 300K to our 75K). Wadhwa et al. Issues in Science and Technology Vol. 23, No. 3, 2007 •  CASEE Community Activities CASEE focuses on the quality of the workforce and recognizes that Japan once made cars that people shunned, so also focuses on innovation and looks for the next frontier

16. Implementing the Principles • Focus on education research as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning. CASEE supports workshops and seminars aimed at helping faculty gain expertise in this new area •  You can support discipline-based education research (and faculty rewards) on your campus

17. Implementing the Principles • Work with those with relevant expertise from the social, learning, and education sciences disciplines. CASEE partnered with the American Sociological Association to look at inhibitors to faculty educational innovation http://www.nae.edu/nae/caseecomnew.nsf/weblinks/NFOY-6XETVC?OpenDocument •  You can seek out and pursue such opportunities

18. What Next? • The next big challenge is moving knowledge into practice. Dissemination is not equal to diffusion http://www.foundationcoalition.org/publications/brochures/change_one_pager.pdf CASEE is studying the diffusion of innovations and applying that learning to education research and SOTL. •  You can be an early adopter and a change leader.