Sustainable Educational Innovation Through Engaged Pedagogy and Organizational Change

• Published in: 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Frevert, Tonya, Rorrer, Audrey, Davis, Daniel J., Latulipe, Celine, Maher, Mary Lou, Cukic, Bojan, Mays, Lawrence, Rogelberg, Steven
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Color; Computer science; Computer science education; engaged teaching practices; Informatics; organizational change; pedagogical change; Technological innovation; US Government
• ISSN: 2377-634X
• DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2018.8658491

This Research-to-Practice Work-in-Progress Paper presents a midway report on a change initiative underway in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) at UNC Charlotte. Comprised of approximately 100 faculty members and nearing 2,000 undergraduate majors, CCI was awarded a 5-year, 2 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 2015 to revolutionize computer science education at the collegiate level. This initiative, which seeks to simultaneously achieve both pedagogical and organizational change, is built upon a foundation of educational innovation through engaged teaching practices. To sustain educational innovation in CCI beyond the funded scope of the project, pedagogical change is thus strategically embedded in CCI's organizational structure through a 3-stage model of faculty adoption, redesigned student course evaluations, and realigned values in the reappointment, promotion, and tenure process. By recognizing that sustained organizational change takes root when there is concurrent buy-in from organizational members-both bottom-up and top-down- this reform initiative seeks to embed two-pronged change not only via educational innovation (pedagogical change), but also in the day-to-day practices, policies, and physical environment of the College itself (organizational change).