Connecting Theory with Practice: Four Change Projects in Faculty Development for Engineering

Amy B. Chan Hilton; John Ray Morelock; Ella Lee Ingram; Tris Utschig

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: Connecting Theory and Practice in a Change Project - And What I Wish I Knew Before I Started
Tagged Division: Faculty Development Constituent Committee
Page Count: 18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--32538
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/32538
Download Count: 487

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Paper Authors

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Amy B. Chan Hilton University of Southern Indiana

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Amy B. Chan Hilton, Ph.D., P.E., F.EWRI is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern Indiana (USI). Her interests include faculty and organizational development, teaching and learning innovations, and environmental systems analysis. Prior to joining USI, Dr. Chan Hilton served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation with experience in the Engineering Education and Centers (ENG/EEC) division and the Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE). She also served as Associate Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Florida A&M University - Florida State University College of Engineering. She holds civil and environmental engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Virginia and is a licensed professional engineer.

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John Ray Morelock University of Georgia orcid.org/0000-0001-8043-5060

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Dr. John Morelock recently graduated from Engineering Education at Virginia Tech as a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His dissertation studied the teaching practices of engineering instructors during game-based learning activities, and how these practices affected student motivation. His research interests include engineering faculty development, student motivation, game-based teaching and learning, gamified classrooms, and engineering faculty collaborations around the scholarship of teaching and learning. He is currently the Associate Director for Educational Innovation and Impact at the University of Georgia's Engineering Education Transformations Institute.

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Ella Lee Ingram Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Ella L. Ingram is an Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her educational research interests include promoting successful change practice of STEM faculty, effective evolution and ecology instruction, and facilitating undergraduate research experiences. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on: nutrition, introductory biology, ecology and environmental studies, evolution, evolutionary medicine, and research practices in science.

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Tris Utschig Kennesaw State University orcid.org/0000-0003-1057-3825

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Dr. Tristan T. Utschig is Associate Director for Learning Sciences in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and is Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Kennesaw State University. Formerly, he was Assistant Director for CETL and the Office of Assessment at Georgia Tech, and prior to that was a tenured Associate Professor of Engineering Physics at Lewis-Clark State College. Dr. Utschig consults with faculty across the university about bringing scholarly teaching and learning innovations into their classroom and assessing their impact. He has regularly published and presented work on a variety of topics including assessment instruments and methodologies, using technology in the classroom, instructional design, team-based learning, and peer coaching. Dr. Utschig completed his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Abstract

This panel paper describes how change makers might connect change theory to practice in designing and implementing a change project and highlights resources to facilitate this linkage. This panel session is designed for change agents, who might have the roles of faculty members, faculty developers, researchers, and/or administrators, with projects that involve change around engineering teaching and learning. While a change maker may recognize the need for a theory of change to inform practice, one might not be sure where to start; and new and experienced change makers may face challenges in connecting theory and implementation throughout a project. A myriad of theories permeate the literature on academic and organizational change, and many have direct implications for the efforts of change makers working to change the culture and practices around teaching and learning in engineering. However, rarely does the literature elucidate what it looks like for a change maker to identify and then implement these theories of change into practice and what challenges might be encountered. This gap in connecting theory to practice complicates the process for both new and experienced change makers to adopt appropriate theories of change, especially as the pressures of everyday work push change agents to make practical decisions that are not necessarily informed by theory or change management practices.

During the panel session, the panelists will provide highlights of change projects they have implemented (or are in the process of implementing), discuss examples of how change theories have been operationalized early in, midway through, or late in the change project lifecycle, and share insights and lessons learned from their change projects. The panel will be comprised of change agents from different academic roles who have integrated theories of change into a variety of projects, which are described in separate panel papers. The panel session also will incorporate an activity for participants to consider a theory of change for their projects and how it might be incorporated and hold conversations around common mistakes in different types and stages of change projects, and how to avoid them, with support from panelists throughout the activities.

Citation
Format

Chan Hilton, A. B., & Morelock, J. R., & Ingram, E. L., & Utschig, T. (2019, June), Connecting Theory with Practice: Four Change Projects in Faculty Development for Engineering Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32538

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This panel paper describes how change makers might connect change theory to practice in designing and implementing a change project and highlights resources to facilitate this linkage.  This panel session is designed for change agents, who might have the roles of faculty members, faculty developers, researchers, and/or administrators, with projects that involve change around engineering teaching and learning.  While a change maker may recognize the need for a theory of change to inform practice, one might not be sure where to start; and new and experienced change makers may face challenges in connecting theory and implementation throughout a project.  A myriad of theories permeate the literature on academic and organizational change, and many have direct implications for the efforts of change makers working to change the culture and practices around teaching and learning in engineering.  However, rarely does the literature elucidate what it looks like for a change maker to identify and then implement these theories of change into practice and what challenges might be encountered.  This gap in connecting theory to practice complicates the process for both new and experienced change makers to adopt appropriate theories of change, especially as the pressures of everyday work push change agents to make practical decisions that are not necessarily informed by theory or change management practices. 

During the panel session, the panelists will provide highlights of change projects they have implemented (or are in the process of implementing), discuss examples of how change theories have been operationalized early in, midway through, or late in the change project lifecycle, and share insights and lessons learned from their change projects.  The panel will be comprised of change agents from different academic roles who have integrated theories of change into a variety of projects, which are described in separate panel papers.  The panel session also will incorporate an activity for participants to consider a theory of change for their projects and how it might be incorporated and hold conversations around common mistakes in different types and stages of change projects, and how to avoid them, with support from panelists throughout the activities. 
AU  - Amy B. Chan Hilton
AU  - John Ray Morelock
AU  - Ella Lee Ingram
AU  - Tris Utschig
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Connecting Theory with Practice: Four Change Projects in Faculty Development for Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/32538
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--32538
ER  -