Mapping the Spread of Collaborative Learning Methods in Gateway STEM Courses via Communities of Practice

摘要

While national-level calls to improve engineering education have persisted since World War II, these calls have recently shifted to advocating for the adoption of teaching methods and pedagogies grounded in the education research literature. Despite these calls, the adoption of Research-Based Instructional Strategies (RBIS) has remained slow, with faculty openly resisting adoption or failing to sustain adoption after trying RBIS. Research has amply demonstrated that there are numerous barriers to change such as faculty incentive structures, lack of time, conflicting identities, and unmet expectations. While looking at the barriers to change provides one part of the explanation for how to create change, looking for "bright spots" of change, and analyzing them, provides an alternate approach for stimulating change.