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Orchestrating a culture-aligned adoption and adaptation of an instructional innovation: A story of an engineering professor’s pedagogical decisions between innovation and school culture

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

ERM: Instruction and Engagement

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41276

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41276

Download Count

255

Paper Authors

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Yonghee Lee Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Yonghee Lee is currently a postdoctoral scholar of the Mechanical Engineering Education Research Center at (MEERCat) Purdue University. His current research is to examine the propagation, research, and evaluation of an educational innovation in multiple settings, with a focus on the role of institutional culture. His research interests are teaching with technology and engineering argumentation to solve complex real world problems.

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David Evenhouse Purdue Engineering Education

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David Evenhouse is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Purdue University - West Lafayette. He earned his BSE in 2015 from Calvin College (now Calvin University) and both his MSME and Engineering Education PhD degrees in 2020 from Purdue University. His current work deals primarily with workforce development and theories of change in the context of higher education.

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Edward Berger Professor of Engineering Education and Mechanical Engineering

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Associate Vice Provost for Learning Innovation

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Jeffrey Rhoads Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Jennifer Deboer Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Dr. Jennifer DeBoer is currently Associate Professor of Engineering Education and Mechanical Engineering (courtesy) at Purdue University. Dr. DeBoer conducts education research and supports diverse students around the world as they are empowered to access, develop, and meaningfully apply engineering skills in their own communities. She has won multiple awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Education Research Association, the Spencer Foundation, and the US Department of State. During her first year as assistant professor, she received the NSF’s prestigious Early CAREER Award, and in 2017, she received the American Society for Engineering Education Mara Wasburn Women in Engineering Early Engineering Educator Award.

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Anastasia Rynearson Campbell University

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Abstract

Engineering education researchers and practitioners have driven instructional innovation in undergraduate engineering instruction. Much of the research about educational innovation has focused on undergraduate classrooms in large enrollment courses and/or research-intensive institutions. Propagation of innovations across settings, especially those quite unlike the original context, has received less attention in the literature. This includes liberal arts institutions, which collectively educate a large number of undergraduate engineering students in various contexts. Therefore, this study focuses on the implementation of an instructional innovation in a liberal arts institution that started a new engineering program to educate a regional engineering workforce. This qualitative study documented the experiences of one engineering instructor who adopted and adapted a blended learning environment for undergraduate dynamics designed to promote active and collaborative learning in undergraduate engineering courses. We analyzed interviews, documents, artifacts, visual materials, and field notes to examine the propagation of the instructional system in context with cultural features in local institution settings. Our findings show how an engineering instructor orchestrated a culture-aligned adoption and adaptation of an instructional innovation. Using reflective practice, the research participant adapted the implemented innovative instruction to their hands-on institution culture, such as adjusting expectations in content, adapting resources to students’ individual needs, adjusting uncertainty of problem solving, and adapting to a hands-on institution culture. This research highlights the important role of institutional culture in local adaptations of educational innovations, and it provides the community with an expanded way to think about innovation propagation.

Lee, Y., & Evenhouse, D., & Berger, E., & Rhoads, J., & Deboer, J., & Rynearson, A. (2022, August), Orchestrating a culture-aligned adoption and adaptation of an instructional innovation: A story of an engineering professor’s pedagogical decisions between innovation and school culture Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41276

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