Faculty Motivation: A Gateway to Transforming Engineering Education

Abstract

Background Transformative change in higher education requires a continuous interplay between educational research and educational practice. In considering how to engage researchers and practitioners in "cycles of educational practice and research" (Jamieson & Lohmann, 2009), we focus on individuals and what motivates them to create and sustain innovations within the engineering education system.Purpose Through this study, we seek to better understand why faculty do or do not engage in the research-practice cycle. Specifically, we employ expectancy value theory and examine the success and value beliefs motivating individuals' choices. Design/MethodWe used mixed methods assessment data from two engineering education conferences that focused on promoting transformational change. Data included observational notes, open-ended written responses submitted after conference sessions, open-ended survey questions, and quantitative survey questions. For data analysis. we used descriptive statistics and open coding techniques.Results We identified expectancy of success and cost value and utility value as important to participants. Notably, the same motivation constructs generally matter for research, practice, and research-informed practice, although practice-informed research was nearly absent from the data. Participants cited strategies that are currently working to improve only some of the success and value categories.Conclusions Expectancy value theory provides a useful framework for understanding faculty choices in the research-practice cycles required for change and innovation in engineering education. Our findings indicate that in addition to improving individuals' competence with critical research and teaching practices, our field should also support collective efficacy and value beliefs.

Balancing the Influence of Driving and Restricting Factors to Use Active Learning

“…This perspective is also seen in the decisional balance associated with TTM and the decision to make health behavioral changes. As summarized by Matusovich et al 9 , in a review of literature on Expectancy Value Theory and the adoption of teaching practices, all four categories are observed in faculty decisions regarding instructional approaches 10 . This perspective was also seen in Finelli et al's 11 focus group of faculty: expectancy was clustered around knowledge and skills of effective teaching; attainment was related to the student experience, including student learning attentiveness and participation; a passion for teaching was related to intrinsic value; and time was most associated with the cost value.…”

Making the Case for Adopting and Evaluating Innovative Pedagogical Techniques in Engineering Classrooms

“…A number of books 1,2 , research papers 3,4,5,6 , and reports 7,8,9 point out the non-adoption or nontranslation of research-based instructional practices, and the phenomenon is often known as the valley or chasm of death. Research on barriers to change 3,4,10,5,11 has revealed a variety of reasons for the valley of death for educational innovations, and there has been a strong push to investigate solutions to this problem.…”

“…It is clear that factors from each of the three categories influence each other, and in the last few years various reports 13,14 and research studies 5,15,6 have called for changes at the systemic level in higher education, especially in the STEM fields. We welcome these initiatives, and we hope that they bring about systemic changes.…”

Engineering Achievement: An Exploratory Case Study of Minority Engineering Organization Chapter Activities

“…The students who participated in the FIU mentorship program gained valuable insight into engineering as a profession, encouraging them to persist in engineering. Even graduate students benefit from mentoring, demonstrating its value at every stage in a student's career [21] . Most of the major MEOs offer mentorship programs to members at different stages in their academic and professional careers [3,27,35] .…”