2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Pedagogical Ninjas: Using an Additive Innovation Cycle for Faculty Development of Teaching-focused Faculty

Presented at Faculty Development Technical Paper Session

This evidence-based practice paper describes a semester-long intervention designed to help faculty realize a mindset of “additive innovation” to promote the sharing, scaling, sustainability, and implementation of pedagogical risk-taking within an engineering curriculum. This intervention has been developed as part of a research project that is funded by the National Science Foundation “Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments” (RED) program. Based on previous research on additive innovation in the Maker community, the research team identified four stages of an additive innovation cycle around which to organize faculty professional development activities: (1) becoming inspired by their community, (2) sharing and learning about pedagogical ideas and artifacts, (3) iterating on their own pedagogical ideas and artifacts, and (4) sharing the results of their pedagogical innovations back into the community. The intervention is underway during the Fall 2018 semester, with a cohort of thirteen instructors from within a multi-disciplinary engineering school.

We share the structure and logistics of faculty development activities under the auspices of our “pedagogical ninjas” program. Participating instructors first shared a teaching innovation from a course through brief lightning round presentations to the rest of the cohort. Next, they attended a series of Friday afternoon teaching and pedagogy workshops around topics such as technology use in the classroom, active learning pedagogies, and student motivation. These workshops were followed by a two-day teaching hackathon in which instructors engaged deeply in the redesign of a specific module or topic from one of their courses, and in many cases, in partnership with their colleagues and students. Currently, community-building events and informal check-ins are allowing the research team to provide input and feedback as the participants work to pilot their teaching innovations. The intervention will culminate in an all-day storytelling event at the end of the semester focused to help participants craft a story of their experience to construct and deliver, in their own words, their own journeys through the additive innovation cycle and their experiences trying out a pedagogical risk in their classroom.

A multiple case study approach is being employed to study the effectiveness and impact of the program, and how participation in each stage of the additive innovation cycle impacts faculty pedagogical practices and intentions related to pedagogical risk-taking. The unit of analysis is an individual faculty member. Data is being collected on each faculty participant, in the form of the artifacts they create, surveys, and reflective interviews. The full paper will present details about each stage of the additive innovation cycle, including its corresponding activities and materials. Preliminary results from our data collection and analysis will also be shared. Findings from this work are expected to help determine how administrative structures can support faculty as change agents. This research will also contribute to an understanding of how embracing a mindset of additive innovation and pedagogical risk-taking as a faculty member can lead to desired professional competencies among engineering students.

The authors would prefer presenting this work in a traditional lecture format.

Authors

Hadi Ali Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus [biography]

Hadi Ali is a doctoral student in Engineering Education Systems and Design at Arizona State University.
Dr. Jennifer M. Bekki Arizona State University [biography]

Jennifer M. Bekki is an Associate Professor in The Polytechnic School within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Her research interests include topics related to engineering student persistence, STEM graduate students (particularly women), online learning, educational data mining, and the modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and graduate degrees in Industrial Engineering, all from Arizona State University.
Dr. Samantha Ruth Brunhaver Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Samantha R. Brunhaver is an Assistant Professor within The Polytechnic School, one of six schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She is a mixed-methods researcher with focus on the preparation and pathways of engineering students. Her specific research interests include engineering student persistence and career decision-making, early career engineering practice, faculty pedagogical risk-taking, and entrepreneurial mindset. She completed her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Prior to ASU, she worked as an engineer at A. W. Chesterton, Boston Scientific, and Procter & Gamble.
Dr. Shawn S. Jordan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1639-779X Arizona State University, Polytechnic campus [biography]

SHAWN JORDAN, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches context-centered electrical engineering and embedded systems design courses, and studies the use of context and storytelling in both K-12 and undergraduate engineering design education. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Education (2010) and M.S./B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Jordan is PI on several NSF-funded projects related to design, including an NSF Early CAREER Award entitled “CAREER: Engineering Design Across Navajo Culture, Community, and Society” and “Might Young Makers be the Engineers of the Future?,” and is a Co-PI on the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments grant “Additive Innovation: An Educational Ecosystem of Making and Risk Taking.” He was named one of ASEE PRISM’s “20 Faculty Under 40” in 2014, and received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama in 2017.
Dr. Micah Lande http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-4964-5654 South Dakota School of Mines & Technology [biography]

Micah Lande, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor and E.R. Stensaas Chair for Engineering Education in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. He teaches human-centered engineering design, design thinking, and design innovation courses. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply design thinking and making processes to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande received his B.S. in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Education) from Stanford University.

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