Teaching innovations hardly spread. Even the adoption of research based teaching innovations is dismal. Reasons for this certainly are multi-faceted[1][2], including teachers'[3] and students'[4] attitudes and beliefs and systemic issues[5].
From a Decoding perspective the adoption of teaching innovations canbe viewed as a bottleneck where many faculty gets stuck. Successful implementors of teaching innovations can be considered to exert some sort of expertise which enables them to overcome the bottleneck related to adopting teaching innovations.
Decoding work done
Description of bottleneck
Teaching innovations hardly spread. Even the adoption of research based teaching innovations is dismal. More often than not, teachers tend to avoid the adoption of teaching innovations or the implementation process fails (for whatever reasons).
Description of mental tasks needed to overcome the bottleneck
A Decoding interview with a faculty member experienced in the implementation revealed the following factors contributing to the adoption of teaching innovations:
- Viewing adoption as gain rather than being overwhelmed by the related effort
- Believing that the aim of teaching is to equip students with needed skills (rather than delivering content)
- Believing in science and believing that teaching is a scientific endevor
- Actively looking for literature about the teaching innovation to be implemented
- Actively looking for people who have implemented the teaching innovation
- Preferring teaching innovations which are integrable into one's teaching
- Looking for (moral) support from other teachers
- Desiring to belong to a community of like-minded teachers
Available resources
Transcript of decoding interview (available in German and as English translation)
References
- ↑ Kezar, A. (2018). How colleges change: Understanding, leading, and enacting change. Routledge.
- ↑ Wieman, C. (2017). Improving how universities teach science: Lessons from the science education initiative. Harvard University Press.
- ↑ Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in higher education. Routledge.
- ↑ Tolman, A. O., & Kremling, J. (Eds.). (2023). Why students resist learning: A practical model for understanding and helping students. Taylor & Francis.
- ↑ Borrego, M., & Henderson, C. (2014). Increasing the use of evidence‐based teaching in STEM higher education: A comparison of eight change strategies. Journal of Engineering Education, 103(2), 220-252.
