2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Connecting Theory with Practice: Four Change Projects in Faculty Development for Engineering

Presented at Connecting Theory and Practice in a Change Project - And What I Wish I Knew Before I Started

This panel paper describes how change makers might connect change theory to practice in designing and implementing a change project and highlights resources to facilitate this linkage. This panel session is designed for change agents, who might have the roles of faculty members, faculty developers, researchers, and/or administrators, with projects that involve change around engineering teaching and learning. While a change maker may recognize the need for a theory of change to inform practice, one might not be sure where to start; and new and experienced change makers may face challenges in connecting theory and implementation throughout a project. A myriad of theories permeate the literature on academic and organizational change, and many have direct implications for the efforts of change makers working to change the culture and practices around teaching and learning in engineering. However, rarely does the literature elucidate what it looks like for a change maker to identify and then implement these theories of change into practice and what challenges might be encountered. This gap in connecting theory to practice complicates the process for both new and experienced change makers to adopt appropriate theories of change, especially as the pressures of everyday work push change agents to make practical decisions that are not necessarily informed by theory or change management practices.

During the panel session, the panelists will provide highlights of change projects they have implemented (or are in the process of implementing), discuss examples of how change theories have been operationalized early in, midway through, or late in the change project lifecycle, and share insights and lessons learned from their change projects. The panel will be comprised of change agents from different academic roles who have integrated theories of change into a variety of projects, which are described in separate panel papers. The panel session also will incorporate an activity for participants to consider a theory of change for their projects and how it might be incorporated and hold conversations around common mistakes in different types and stages of change projects, and how to avoid them, with support from panelists throughout the activities.

Authors

Dr. Amy B. Chan Hilton http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-1761-4194 University of Southern Indiana [biography]

Amy B. Chan Hilton, Ph.D., P.E., F.EWRI is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern Indiana (USI). Her interests include faculty and organizational development, teachi
Dr. John Ray Morelock http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8043-5060 University of Georgia [biography]

Dr. Morelock is an Assistant Professor of Practice with an emphasis on engineering education research, and the Associate Director of Educational Innovation and Impact for UGA's Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI). In addition to coordinating EETI’s faculty development programming, Dr. Morelock conducts research on institutional change via faculty development, with an emphasis on innovative ways to cultivate and evaluate supportive teaching and learning networks in engineering departments and colleges. He received his doctoral degree in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where he was a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His dissertation studied the teaching practices of engineering instructors during game-based learning activities, and how these practices affected student motivation.
Dr. Ella Lee Ingram Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Ella L. Ingram is an Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her educational research interests include promoting successful change practice of STEM faculty, effective evolution and ecology instruction, and facilitating undergraduate research experiences. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on: nutrition, introductory biology, ecology and environmental studies, evolution, evolutionary medicine, and research practices in science.
Dr. Tris Utschig http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-1057-3825 Kennesaw State University [biography]

Dr. Tristan T. Utschig is Associate Director for Learning Sciences in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and is Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering at Kennesaw State University. Formerly, he was Assistant Director for CETL and the Office of Assessment at Georgia Tech, and prior to that was a tenured Associate Professor of Engineering Physics at Lewis-Clark State College. Dr. Utschig consults with faculty across the university about bringing scholarly teaching and learning innovations into their classroom and assessing their impact. He has regularly published and presented work on a variety of topics including assessment instruments and methodologies, using technology in the classroom, instructional design, team-based learning, and peer coaching. Dr. Utschig completed his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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