Unpacking how instructors’ past experiences influence pedagogical decisions

It is commonly believed that faculty teach the way they were taught (Lortie, 1975). However, how instructors’ past educational experiences influence their classroom practices is unclear. To unpack how past experiences influence instructional behavior, we conducted video-stimulated recall interviews with 14 faculty; participants watched recordings of their instruction and reflected on their instructional decisions, the beliefs underlying those decisions, and past experiences influencing those beliefs. We analyzed interview transcripts using the Theory of Planned Behavior (Azjen, 1980) as an interpretive lens. Analyses reveal that (1) instructors rarely copy behaviours from past educational experiences; instead, they tend to innovate and develop behaviours through trial and error; (2) instructors have clear intentions that guide their behaviours, and these intentions are frequently informed by their own past experiences as students; and (3) instructors often lack objective evidence that their behaviours achieve the intended outcomes they described. This research was approved by the University of Guelph\u27s research ethics board

Academic influencers: Teaching faculty as potential departmental change agents for inclusive pedagogy

There is a disproportionate loss of minoritized undergraduate students from STEM majors. Faculty change efforts to confront this diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenge, such as the adoption of evidenced-based instructional approaches, has been slow. Research on affecting change in STEM departments suggests that initiatives are more successful when they are sustained and target departments rather than individuals. One potential change strategy to promote DEI-related change within a department is to embed tenure-track education-focused faculty within STEM departments. The specialist faculty have been demonstrated to pedagogically innovate within their department and consistently interact with their colleagues regarding teaching. Therefore, we sought to assess whether tenure-track education-focused faculty can influence their colleagues on instructional topics, including those related to DEI. We surveyed five STEM departments at large research-intensive campuses. The surveys had faculty select colleagues who were influential upon various aspects of instruction, including methodology, course materials, and aspects of DEI. We constructed social networks of influence across these aspects of instruction. Our analyses reveal heterogeneity across these networks. Some, like the teaching strategies network, are highly connected and involve the majority of the department, while others, like the DEI influence network, comprise a significantly smaller population of faculty. We find that tenure-track education-focused faculty are influential across all aspects of instruction and are disproportionately so in the sparsely populated DEI influence networks. This suggests that embedding these specialist faculty within departments may lead to effective sustained change efforts in the DEI values held by STEM academic departments. This research was approved by the institutional review board at the University of California, Irvine