Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR) – Institutional and Community Transformation Track

This track supports projects that use innovative approaches to increase the use of highly effective, evidence-based STEM teaching and learning, curricular, and co-curricular practices in institutions of higher education or across/within disciplinary communities. These projects may be proposed by an institution or set of institutions; alternatively, community proposals may be submitted through professional communities, including discipline-based professional societies and networks or organizations that represent institutions of higher education. Projects are expected to be both evidence-based and knowledge-generating. Competitive proposals pertaining to institutional and community transformation will include a description of the theory of change that is guiding the work proposed and will test hypotheses about transforming undergraduate teaching and learning in STEM by examining the impact of deliberate processes of change. Useful theories of change typically include a description of the problem or a plan to develop information about the problem to be addressed; the goals to be achieved by the proposed project; the processes, interventions, or strategies that will enable the proposing institution or community to meet these goals; a rationale for why these processes are likely to enable the achievement of the stated goals; and indication of how the proposer will assess whether the goals have been met. It is expected that, in presenting a theory of change, proposals will be informed by research literature and theoretical perspectives concerning change that are relevant to the goals and context presented in the proposal. While proposed projects will vary in approach and theories of change, promising proposals will also recognize that STEM higher education is a complex system, and that achieving change goals involves analyzing and addressing the relevance and impact of critical organizational factors (e.g., faculty reward systems, opportunities for professional growth, and institutional policies and processes) that could impede or facilitate progress toward the stated goals. For example, support from key administrative leaders, ranging from presidents and provost, to deans and department chairs, is often an important factor in affecting the development, impact, and sustainability of change efforts at the institutional level.