This award is for a WIDER program planning grant. The purpose of this planning grant is to identify the current usage of evidence-based instructional practices and the balance between restricting and driving influences for their implementation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) using the Transtheoretical Model for Health Behavior Change. Not previously applied to education, this model acknowledges that change can be cyclic and include relapses to a previous state, similar to findings from research into diffusion of education innovations and use of signature pedagogies in STEM education. The model is being used to guide the collection of mixed-methods data from faculty in the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Science that teach first-year general education STEM courses in the engineering curriculum. Data are being analyzed to identify evidence-based instructional practices currently used by these faculty, distribution of stages of change, processes used to advance through the stages of change, and the balance between the magnitude of driving and restricting forces.
The outcomes of this project will be used to provide a guide to develop interventions, based on specific independent variables associated with each individual faculty member in general education mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering courses, encouraging use of evidence-based instructional practices. The inventory of evidence-based instructional practices currently implemented at ERAU collected through this planning grant will allow ERAU's Center of Teaching and Learning Excellence to utilize appropriate faculty activities with respect to particular stages of change. The analysis will also result in a plan to encourage driving forces and limit restricting forces, shifting the balance towards a progressive stance on the implementation of evidence-based instructional practices. The enhanced use of these practices, especially beneficial to underrepresented groups, encourages student learning in first year engineering courses that is expected to reduce student attrition at ERAU. Dissemination of the findings of this project will provide other institutions with a plan to apply the Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change and associated analyses to assess faculty use of evidence-based practices at their institution, as well as to increase the likelihood of adoption of those practices.
