Strategic Institutional Change to Support Advancement of Women Scientists in the Academy

Laursen, Sandra L.; Austin, Ann E.; Soto, Melissa; Martinez, Dalinda

doi:10.1002/9781119067573.ch5

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In recent decades, there have been several calls to action to improve undergraduate STEM education, particularly aimed at developing students’ science process skills. , Among these important skills, the ability to design experiments is considered a core competency for undergraduate STEM degrees. Unfortunately, many STEM undergraduate students complete their degrees with insufficient experimental design skills, as traditional laboratory courses fail to provide opportunities to practice these skills .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple Approach to Incorporating Experimental Design into a General Chemistry Lab

2020

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In an idealized General Chemistry Laboratory curriculum, students would hone their experimental design ability with practice encouraged by laboratory exercises designed to be open-ended. However, traditional General Chemistry Laboratory courses often lack opportunities for students to design their own experiments, instead opting to provide students with predetermined protocols. In addition, introducing guided inquiry into a General Chemistry Laboratory is logistically challenging, often prohibiting implementation. Here, we present a method for converting a traditional "cookbook-style" laboratory curriculum into one that is more open-ended with opportunities for students to practice experimental design skills. Our approach involves developing clear learning objectives, evaluating the existing curriculum for alignment to those objectives and providing opportunities for incorporating experimental design, and revising existing protocols. These revisions adopted a two week model, following up a traditional cookbook-style exercise focused on teaching students a given technique with a second week where students designed their own experiments to answer an instructor-provided question situated in a real-world context. This design provided sufficient structure for students to learn basic chemistry laboratory techniques while also creating the opportunity for practicing science process skills such as experimental design. Students in a pilot group experiencing this revised curriculum reported greater increases in their confidence with experimental design than peers in the traditional curriculum. We propose that this model could be adopted by other institutions as a meaningful step toward fully openended laboratory courses while avoiding many of the associated challenges.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple Approach to Incorporating Experimental Design into a General Chemistry Lab

2020

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“…A growing body of literature suggests that systemic efforts to change higher education institutions are enhanced when change actors utilize multiple theories of change that capitalize on their individual, team, or organizational assets (Bensimon, 1989; Boyce, 2003; Kezar, 2013; Laursen, Austin, Soto, & Martinez, 2015; Sporn, 1999). Theories of change provide different ways of thinking about “why change occurs, how it occurs, what are the outcomes of change, types of change .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…1 Perhaps, the most well-known framework that explains the use of multiple theories of change is Bolman and Deal’s leadership frames, which examine structural, political, human resource, and symbolic strategies as ways to lead organizations and guide change processes (Bolman & Deal, 2007; Kezar, 2005). For example, Laursen et al (2015) used Bolman and Deal’s frames to understand how leaders in ADVANCE-funded initiatives in higher education made changes to support women faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and were more successful progressing and institutionalizing efforts using multiple frames. While multiframe leadership is one way to examine the multifaceted aspects of change processes, Bolman and Deal’s four frames represent some but not all of the strategies associated with creating change in higher education.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…While there has been conceptual support and advocacy for more complex approaches to change, this study is part of a very limited empirical literature about how multiple theories can be deployed in change processes (Kezar, 2013; Sypawka, 2008). In the few empirical studies conducted of using multiple change theories, the focus has been on documenting how using more theories enhances the efficacy of the change effort (Corbo et al, 2016; Laursen et al, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Leveraging Multiple Theories of Change to Promote Reform: An Examination of the AAU STEM Initiative

Kezar

Holcombe

2019

Educational Policy

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An emerging body of literature suggests that systemic efforts to change institutions are enhanced when change actors utilize multiple approaches or strategies to change that capitalize on their individual, team, or organizational assets. Given that little research in higher education has examined the ways leaders deploy multiple strategies in service of change, this study sought to fill this gap in the literature by studying an effort that deployed several strategies or theories of change. Building on emerging literature about the value of multiple theories of change, the study followed the Association of American Universities (AAU) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Initiative, which aimed to improve undergraduate teaching in STEM at research universities and utilized multiple theories to inform a complex strategy. This research shows the value of using multiple theories of change and also provides guidance on the best way to harness or use multiple change approaches.

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“…Documentation of the workshops (including format/activities, evaluation, and work vignettes from 10 selected institutional teams) have been disseminated − and six faculty teams presented their work at a symposium entitled “Performance Expectations in General Chemistry” at the 2018 Biennial Conference on Chemistry Education. The effort was also highlighted in the 2019 AAAS/NSF Levers for Change report (ref , p 56). From the workshop attendees, faculty teams from four institutions, Sam Houston State University (SHSU), Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO), the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO), and the University of Texas at Austin (UTX), came forward to participate in developing a refined learning activity consensus structure, building upon their initial work to develop 3-D general chemistry learning materials.…”

Section: Acs General Chemistry Performance Expectations Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

The American Chemical Society General Chemistry Performance Expectations Project: From Task Force to Distributed Process for Implementing Multidimensional Learning

et al. 2021

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This contribution reports the process and outcomes of a multiyear effort that supported institutions in reforming general chemistry using multidimensional learning approaches in the form of performance expectations. Performance expectations are based on evidence-centered assessment design principles and describe what learners should be able to do with their knowledge, a subtle (but profound) shift from traditional course learning goals. The effort grew from the recommendations of a task force appointed in 2015 by the American Chemical Society's Division of Chemical Education and Society Committee on Education. This task force recommended a participatory process for creating general chemistry performance expectations that was distributed over, and also coordinated across, multiple institutions. With support from the ACS Education Division, this recommendation was enacted through workshops which supported faculty in developing activities and assessments that integrated content, science and engineering practices, and cross-cutting conceptsa three-dimensional structure based on the National Research Council report A Framework for K-12 Education. From these workshops, a group of faculty committed to implementing three-dimensional performance expectations in their courses evolved. In practice, these faculty found that their institutional work resulted in designing learning performances that, while also three-dimensional, were of narrower content focus than is typical of performance expectations. This development process also led faculty to use the structures of evidence-centered design and multidimensional learning to document learning activity designs in new ways, generating a consensus activity structure. As examples of how faculty used this consensus activity structure as a new way to examine student learning and performances, development artifacts from four of the participating institutions is presented.

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Strategic Institutional Change to Support Advancement of Women Scientists in the Academy

Cited by 14 publications

References 13 publications

Simple Approach to Incorporating Experimental Design into a General Chemistry Lab

Simple Approach to Incorporating Experimental Design into a General Chemistry Lab

Leveraging Multiple Theories of Change to Promote Reform: An Examination of the AAU STEM Initiative

The American Chemical Society General Chemistry Performance Expectations Project: From Task Force to Distributed Process for Implementing Multidimensional Learning

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