Cultivating a culture of scholarly teaching and learning in a college of engineering: An ecological design approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper describes a novel institutional change model, embodied in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute at the University of Georgia, that was intentionally designed to build community and expertise around scholarly teaching and learning in engineering education. The model is informed by several theoretical constructs, including complex systems theory, the propagation paradigm, a strengths perspective, and ecological design principles. The goals of this paper are twofold. First, we introduce these theoretical constructs and describe how they inform both the organisational structure and day-to-day operations of the Institute. Second, drawing on data collected using ethnographic methods and a thinking with theory analytical approach, we share two practice examples that demonstrate some of the opportunities and challenges associated with our institutional change efforts. The first example shows how our Institute’s programming enabled a teaching-focused faculty member to connect with others in our college in ways that dramatically enhanced his existing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) outreach efforts to a local, resource-constrained high school. The second example demonstrates how complex systems theory and ecological design principles can be used to both create the conditions for scholarly teaching, learning, and research in engineering education, and provide a set of theoretical perspectives through which to better understand and solve challenges that arise in collaborative, educational research and practice settings.