Raina Khatri

Successful propagation of educational innovations: Viewpoints from principal investigators and program

We are beginning a project to help developers of educational innovations promote adoption of their work at other institutions through deliberate propagation strategies. To gain a better understanding of the current situation with regard to the spread of educational innovations, we analyzed a web-based survey of 1284 Principal Investigators (PIs) in the NSF Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) program and held focus groups with NSF TUES program directors (PDs). Overall, PIs tend to think of spreading their innovations through one-way transmission methods, such as publishing a paper. On the other hand, PDs think that interactive methods, such as multi-day workshops, are more effective. We conclude by advocating the need for increased explicit attention on planning and enacting propagation strategies by both PIs and PDs.

From Dissemination to Propagation: A New Paradigm for Education Developers

• Scholarly studies and national reports document failure of current efforts to achieve broad, sustained adoption of research-based instructional practices, despite compelling bodies of evidence supporting efficacy of many of these practices. • A dissemination paradigm characterizes patterns of these current, failing efforts. Change agents, working within the dissemination paradigm, try to convince adopters that their innovations can help their students. • Alternatively, change agents, working within the propagation paradigm, engage with adopters early and often to understand their instructional systems and interactively develop a strong product adaptable to specific contexts. Jeffrey E. Froyd is a Research Professor at Texas A&M University. His research interests include sustained adoption of improvements in learning and teaching, systematic reviews in engineering education, evaluation of faculty campus climates, and assessment of complex learning outcomes.