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Changing the Culture of STEM Instruction

September 9, 2008

Efforts to change the culture of teaching and learning in college-level departments of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) should focus on illuminating, and then shifting, the local cultural schema. The findings of a recent evaluation provide encouragement for leaders in higher education to take two actions: (a) to create venues in which a skilled facilitator or “culture broker” leads faculty members from different disciplinary backgrounds to focus on commonly shared pedagogy-related challenges, and (b) to become aware of, and constantly take into account, deeply entrenched cultural schema and the ways they are embedded in the local institution. Guiding questions in this study included (a) the influence of institutional contexts, (b) whether project activities affected STEM instruction and collaboration on preservice programs and in-service programs, and (c) how change initiatives were accepted and incorporated. Read WCER Working Paper 2008-6 here.