Four categories of change strategies for transforming undergraduate instruction

Abstract

Although decades of research have identified effective instructional practices for improving student learning in college and university courses, these practices are not widely implemented. Scholars in several distinct fields are interested in promoting these practices and have engaged in research on pedagogical change. This chapter presents the initial results of a comprehensive literature review. The authors undertook an examination of 130 randomly chosen journal articles from a set of 295 that were identified as addressing change in the instructional practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Based on this literature review, four core categories of strategies for change were identified: disseminating curriculum and pedagogy, developing reflective teachers, developing policy, and developing shared visions. The use of particular types of strategies for change differs by field in important ways and has implications for the success of the effort to bring about a change. Common weaknesses in the body of literature are also identified; these include a lack of connection to other literature on the topic of change and a lack of presented data to support claims of success or failure with respect to the strategies for change.