Below we list specific suggestions to help build bridges with faculty in the change process.
1. Provide easily modifiable materials. Moving toward the invention side of the adoptioninvention
continuum means that instructional materials and designs should be developed
with the expectation that faculty will engage in local customization. Faculty should be
treated as participants in the development process and be given the opportunity to adopt
materials for their local environments. In addition, providing instructors with easily
modifiable materials communicates to them that they can and should use their own
expertise to appropriately integrate the materials into their unique teaching situations..
2. Focus on the dissemination of research ideas in addition to curriculum. If faculty are going to
modify curriculum effectively, they need to understand both what works (details) as well as
why it works (principles). For example, although many physics faculty now have a copy of
the book describing the instructional strategy of Peer Instruction [13] and many have begun
using some of the associated conceptual questions, they are less aware of the research
evidence that learning is primarily a social activity (e.g., as summarized by Redish in ref. 29,
p. 39) and tend to drop the peer‐peer interaction part of Peer Instruction [15]. Without an understanding of the social importance of learning, it is easy for an instructor to reinvent
peer instruction in a way that is likely to reduce its effectiveness. On the other hand, once
an instructor understands the importance of social interactions for learning, they may be
more likely to incorporate this aspect into their own reinventions or inventions.
3. Emphasize personal connections over data presentation. Reform efforts often focus on
producing written materials for distribution, with an emphasis on data showing the
effectiveness of the innovation. However, our preliminary analysis of interviews with
physics faculty suggest that faculty who adopt an innovation typically learn about it and
come to try it through dynamic social interactions (i.e. colleagues or workshops), rather than
dissemination literature [7]. They do turn to the literature for additional information and
support, but generally only after they have had some other avenue of exposure.
Additionally, while the interviewees did often mention supportive data, this data was
generally only a confirmation of what they already believed and not a factor that caused
them to change their minds about an innovation that they did not initially believe would
work. Faculty generally try new ideas for more intuitive reasons; they feel that their current
approach is not working and the innovation makes sense. Data is still important as it helps
faculty feel confident in their efforts to be more interactive and support them as they justify
their diversion from the norm to their colleagues but data collected elsewhere does not
typically cause faculty to change their minds one way or the other.