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Conceptualizing Faculty Adaptability in Enacting Curricular Change

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Faculty Perspectives of Active Learning, Inequity, and Curricular Change

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--36833

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/36833

Download Count

406

Paper Authors

biography

Hadi Ali Arizona State University

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Hadi studies the influence of the future of work on curricular innovation, with a focus on exploring the relationships between and among adaptability, risk taking and value making. In an effort to characterize engineering education as an (eco)system for creating value, Hadi’s approach integrates analytical methods of data science to address changes in systems and society. More broadly, Hadi is interested in examining how engineering innovations mobilize social and economic change. Hadi has graduate degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics (space systems design, astrodynamics and propulsion), Electrical and Computer Engineering (artificial intelligence, fields and optics) and Engineering Education (design cognition and human communication inquiry) all from Purdue University. He also has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering (design) from the University of Jordan, and an undergraduate degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue. He taught courses in use-inspired design at ASU and in transforming ideas to innovations at Purdue. Prior to joining ASU, Hadi worked at the University of Jordan as a facilitator for curricular change and design content instructor at the Department of Mechatronics. He was on the management team of the Amman Design Week in its inaugural year in Jordan, launched by Queen Rania--a pioneering platform that harnessed creativity, revived the conversation about design, and instilled a spirit of collaboration and exchange.

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biography

Ann F. McKenna Arizona State University

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Ann F. McKenna is the Vice Dean of Strategic Advancement for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, and is a professor of engineering in the Polytechnic School, one of the six Fulton Schools. Prior to joining ASU she served as a program director at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education, and was the director of education improvement in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. Dr. McKenna received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

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biography

Jennifer M. Bekki Arizona State University

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Jennifer M. Bekki is an Associate Professor in The Polytechnic School within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Her research interests include topics related to engineering student persistence, STEM graduate students (particularly women), online learning, educational data mining, and the modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and graduate degrees in Industrial Engineering, all from Arizona State University.

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biography

Rod D. Roscoe Arizona State University

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Rod Roscoe is an Associate Professor of human systems engineering in the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and a Diane and Gary Tooker Professor of Effective Education in STEM. He is affiliate faculty of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and a member of the Center for Gender Equity in STEM (CGEST) and the Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence, and Robot Teaming (CHART). His research investigates how the intersection of learning science, computer science, and user science can inform effective and innovative uses of educational technologies. He is also interested in how engineering education can better prepare future engineers to consider the human elements and impacts of their work, particularly with respect to more equitable and inclusive outcomes.

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Abstract

In this theory paper, we seek to conceptualize faculty adaptability as self-regulation during curricular change. We highlight the expanded set of responsibilities that faculty engage with as part of their effort to (re)shape the engineering curriculum. Based on the literature, we illustrate how adaptability is multi-faceted; it has different aspects that are manifested differently in different contexts. Moreover, this research conceptualizes a university as an environment that represents dynamic contexts. Consequently, faculty do not have fixed tasks; rather, they engage in broad roles. Although knowledge about effective teaching and learning exists, and theories of change strategies are considered, the lack of the understanding of the behavior of engineering faculty as change agents, and as the unit of analysis, during the process of change, remains a major contributor against more robust change efforts. Without the comprehensive understanding of the adaptability of key change agents in the educational system, and as they respond to dynamic and changing contexts, the effective enacting of curricular change initiatives remains unfulfilled. Ultimately, we aim to use this conceptual model to compare faculty adaptability in different contexts of curricular change.

Ali, H., & McKenna, A. F., & Bekki, J. M., & Roscoe, R. D. (2021, July), Conceptualizing Faculty Adaptability in Enacting Curricular Change Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36833

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