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Guiding principles for change in undergraduate education: An analysis of a departmental team’s change effort

Courtney Ngai*

Mary E. Pilgrim and Daniel L. Reinholz

Karen Falkenberg and Chris Geanious

Joel C. Corbo and Sarah B. Wise

Clara E. Smith

Amelia Stone-Johnstone

  • The Institute for Learning and Teaching, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, USA

  • Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, California 92182, USA

  • The Institute for Learning and Teaching, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521, USA

  • Center for STEM Learning, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

  • Human Resources, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

  • Department of Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California 92831, USA

  • *Corresponding author. Courtney.Ngai@colostate.edu
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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 19, 020107 – Published 31 July, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020107

Abstract

The practices of a departmental action team (DAT) are examined to characterize their change effort in their undergraduate program. The DAT’s effort was guided by the DAT model’s six core principles. The core principles are grounded in best practices for higher education and organizational change literature. Meeting minutes, facilitator journal entries, and exit interviews are analyzed to identify ways in which the core principles influenced the change effort. This analysis provides insight into how the core principles can be leveraged to enact positive change in education. Furthermore, this work provides a method for researchers to characterize other complex change efforts.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 19, 020107– Published 31 July, 2023
  • Received 5 November 2021
  • Revised 10 June 2023
  • Accepted 13 June 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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