Development of the Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument to measure factors associated with instructional practice in the context of institutional change

Abstract

Background Many institutional and departmentally focused change efforts have sought to improve teaching in STEM through the promotion of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). Even with these efforts, EBIPs have not become the predominant mode of teaching in many STEM departments. To better understand institutional change efforts and the barriers to EBIP implementation, we developed the Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument (CAFI) to probe faculty member characteristics beyond demographic attributes at the individual level. The CAFI probes multiple constructs related to institutional change including perceptions of the degree of mutual advantage of taking an action (strategic complements), trust and interconnectedness among colleagues (interdependence), and institutional attitudes toward teaching (climate). Results From data collected across five STEM fields at three large public research universities, we show that the CAFI has evidence of internal structure validity based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The scales have low correlations with each other and show significant variation among our sampled universities as demonstrated by ANOVA. We further demonstrate a relationship between the strategic complements and climate factors with EBIP adoption through use of a regression analysis. In addition to these factors, we also find that indegree, a measure of opinion leadership, correlates with EBIP adoption. Conclusions The CAFI uses the CACAO model of change to link the intended outcome of EBIP adoption with perception of EBIPs as mutually reinforcing (strategic complements), perception of faculty having their fates intertwined (interdependence), and perception of institutional readiness for change (climate). Our work has established that the CAFI is sensitive enough to pick up on differences between three relatively similar institutions and captures significant relationships with EBIP adoption. Our results suggest that the CAFI is likely to be a suitable tool to probe institutional change efforts, both for change agents who wish to characterize the local conditions on their respective campuses to support effective planning for a change initiative and for researchers who seek to follow the progression of a change initiative. While these initial findings are very promising, we also recommend that CAFI be administered in different types of institutions to examine the degree to which the observed relationships hold true across contexts.

Measuring the Association of Departmental Climate around Teaching with Adoption of Evidence-Based Instructional Practices: A National Survey of Chemistry Faculty Members

“…While there are no established cutoff criteria, these values are respectively higher and lower than ideal and suggest a subset of expected responses would occur by chance . However, these values approach those found in similar investigations using the EBIP Adoption Scale and so may reflect an inherent aspect of the instrument . Given the primary evidence of reliability and unidimensionality for the EBIP Adoption Scale, namely, the CR and CS coefficients that well exceed cutoff criteria, participants’ scores on the EBIP Adoption Scale could be calculated as the total number of “yes” responses.…”

“…53 However, these values approach those found in similar investigations using the EBIP Adoption Scale and so may reflect an inherent aspect of the instrument. 55 Given the primary evidence of reliability and unidimensionality for the EBIP Adoption Scale, namely, the CR and CS coefficients that well exceed cutoff criteria, participants' scores on the EBIP Adoption Scale could be calculated as the total number of "yes" responses. Responses with unexpected patterns were retained for this calculation, given they represented a minor proportion of the data, as reflected by the CR = 0.96.…”

Factors associated with chemistry faculty members’ cooperative adoption of evidence-based instructional practices: results from a national survey

“…Moreover, faculty members who more strongly perceive their institutional climate as supportive of teaching innovation are also those who tend to not adopt EBIPs (McAlpin et al, 2022); while the nature of this relationship is unclear, it is possible that a population of STEM faculty members views institutional readiness for teaching innovation as, instead, institutional pressure to use EBIPs (McAlpin et al, 2022). Results of the investigation imply a need for activities designed to convince faculty of the mutual benefit of adopting EBIPs, which are distinct from activities that focus on teaching faculty how to implement EBIPs (McAlpin et al, 2022). Authors of the investigation also call for additional studies focused on factors underlying the cooperative adoption, as they may vary with context (McAlpin et al, 2022).…”

“…Results of the investigation imply a need for activities designed to convince faculty of the mutual benefit of adopting EBIPs, which are distinct from activities that focus on teaching faculty how to implement EBIPs (McAlpin et al, 2022). Authors of the investigation also call for additional studies focused on factors underlying the cooperative adoption, as they may vary with context (McAlpin et al, 2022).…”

Ball and Stick Fun Model Kit for Stem Education

“…The goal of this educational project was to provide all students with the critical thinking abilities that would enable them to solve problems creatively and, in turn, make them more marketable to employers (Schaffrath, 1983). To enhance STEM teaching, numerous institutional and departmental change initiatives have promoted the use of research-based teaching strategies (McAlpin et al, 2022). Practical experience has always been important in science education for helping students build a set of fundamental skills that will enable them to make a significant contribution to the growth of economies.…”