WIP: Incremental innovation training as a means for percolating faculty teaching culture change-A First Look

Arun Srinivasa; Rujun Gao; M Cynthia Hipwell; David Seets; Andreas Polycarpou; Karan Watson; Mindy Bergman

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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: Faculty Development Division Technical Session 4
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41294
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41294
Download Count: 904

Paper Authors

biography

Arun Srinivasa Texas A&M University

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Dr Srinivasa is the Holdredge Paul professor and Associate Head of the Department for the UG progam at the Mike Walker '77 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He obtained his Phd in Mechanics from UC Berkeley and has been active in pedagogical research and faculty development apart from his research work in Mechanics. He was the recipient of the ASEE Archie Higdon Award for his contributions to Mechanics Education and the Worchester Reed Warner Medal from the ASME for his for seminal contribution to the permanent literature of engineering. He is very interested in the use of technology to enhance education and in empowering faculty to experiment in pedagogical methods

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Karan Watson Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations

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Karan L. Watson, Ph.D., P.E., is currently Provost Emeritus and a Regents Senior Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, having joined the faculty at Texas A&M University in 1983 as an Assistant Professor. She served as the Co-Director of the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation and is currently a distinguished fellow of this Institute. She has served in numerous administrative roles at Texas A&M University, including: provost and executive vice president, vice provost, dean of faculties and associate provost, interim VP for diversity, associate dean of Engineering, and program chair for interdisciplinary engineering. Dr. Watson is a fellow of three organizations : the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Her awards and recognitions include the U.S. President's Award for Mentoring Minorities and Women in Science and Technology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science mentoring award, the IEEE International Undergraduate Teaching Medal, the American Society for Engineering Education Lifetime Achievement Award, and numerous faculty awards at Texas A&M University. She has served as President of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the President of the Education Society of IEEE.

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Mindy Bergman

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Abstract

In this work in progress (WIP), we describe here the deployment of an “innovation mindset training” for faculty and preliminary findings on the evolution of faculty mindset at a large traditional Mechanical Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, which is a research focussed university which nevertheless has a very large undergraduate program (1500 students from the sophomore to senior yea) r and with more than 500 graduate students. We seek to study (a) how do faculty at typically approach pedagogical or curricular changes? (b) to what extent are student outcomes focused (c) how well do they plan their changes (d) are their changes incremental and easily implementable or is it a large one off change with no feedback? (e) Whether and how does a workshop with specific focus on the iterative build-measure-learn-share (B-M-L-S) cycles of learning change how faculty approach teaching innovations. This first look focuses on what changes occurred in the faculty plans. This effort was funded through National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE/PFE: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED): Adaptation and implementation (A&I) grant (referred to as RED grant). This is an adaptation of the “Additive innovation” model proposed by Arizona State University. Our project, called Teams for Creating opportunities for Revolutionizing the Preparation of Students (TCORPS), is focused almost entirely on faculty development and empowerment and changing teaching culture. To help initiate the culture change, faculty were invited to form teams to propose small changes that they would like to implement into existing course curricula. In return, the teams would receive training on incremental innovation and change management. oOver 10 teams applied and Four project teams were selected. All applicants were invited to attend a summer workshop for the training. The summer workshop was composed of six 2-hour training sessions and several optional informal working sessions. The topics included pedological measurement toolkits, inclusivity, and team psychology. Additionally, iterative experimentation, goal-setting, and innovation business process workshop sessions were led by former industry leaders experienced with culture change in a business environment. To study the effect of the workshop in modifying the faculty planning/behavior, two activities are underway. First, the innovation idea submission form will be repopulated by each team to determine if the goals and plans have changed to align with iterative learning practices taught in the workshop. A rubric will be developed to score the faculty’s responses on a number of facets with the goal of elucidating the answers to the questions listed above. Additionally, each team will provide monthly updates on their projects over the academic year where metrics will be applied to determine how well the different teams are applying the iterative methodology taught in the workshop. This WIP paper describes the workshop and the pre and post results and future work on innovation training. We propose to present this as a Lightning Talk

Citation
Format

Srinivasa, A., & Gao, R., & Hipwell, M. C., & Seets, D., & Polycarpou, A., & Watson, K., & Bergman, M. (2022, August), WIP: Incremental innovation training as a means for percolating faculty teaching culture change-A First Look Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41294

TY - CPAPER
AB - In this work in progress (WIP), we describe here the deployment of an “innovation mindset training” for faculty and preliminary findings on the evolution of faculty mindset at a large traditional Mechanical Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, which is a research focussed university which nevertheless has a very large undergraduate program (1500 students from the sophomore to senior yea) r and with more than 500 graduate students.
We seek to study (a) how do faculty at typically approach pedagogical or curricular changes? (b) to what extent are student outcomes focused (c) how well do they plan their changes (d) are their changes incremental and easily implementable or is it a large one off change with no feedback? (e) Whether and how does a workshop with specific focus on the iterative build-measure-learn-share (B-M-L-S) cycles of learning change how faculty approach teaching innovations. This first look focuses on what changes occurred in the faculty plans.
This effort was funded through National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE/PFE: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED): Adaptation and implementation (A&I) grant (referred to as RED grant). This is an adaptation of the “Additive innovation” model proposed by Arizona State University. Our project, called Teams for Creating opportunities for Revolutionizing the Preparation of Students (TCORPS), is focused almost entirely on faculty development and empowerment and changing teaching culture.
To help initiate the culture change, faculty were invited to form teams to propose small changes that they would like to implement into existing course curricula. In return, the teams would receive training on incremental innovation and change management. oOver 10 teams applied and Four project teams were selected. All applicants were invited to attend a summer workshop for the training. The summer workshop was composed of six 2-hour training sessions and several optional informal working sessions. The topics included pedological measurement toolkits, inclusivity, and team psychology. Additionally, iterative experimentation, goal-setting, and innovation business process workshop sessions were led by former industry leaders experienced with culture change in a business environment.
To study the effect of the workshop in modifying the faculty planning/behavior, two activities are underway. First, the innovation idea submission form will be repopulated by each team to determine if the goals and plans have changed to align with iterative learning practices taught in the workshop. A rubric will be developed to score the faculty’s responses on a number of facets with the goal of elucidating the answers to the questions listed above. Additionally, each team will provide monthly updates on their projects over the academic year where metrics will be applied to determine how well the different teams are applying the iterative methodology taught in the workshop.
This WIP paper describes the workshop and the pre and post results and future work on innovation training. We propose to present this as a Lightning Talk

AU - Arun Srinivasa
AU - Rujun Gao
AU - M Cynthia Hipwell
AU - David Seets
AU - Andreas Polycarpou
AU - Karan Watson
AU - Mindy Bergman
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - WIP: Incremental innovation training as a means for percolating faculty teaching culture change-A First Look
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41294
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41294
ER -