The Integrated First-Year Engineering Experience

Lessons in Change

Purdue University

5 April 2001

Dr. Karan L. Watson(in collaboration with Jeff Froyd)

Funded in part by the National Science Foundation through the Foundation Coalition

Presentation

• Case Study- TAMU’s Integrated First-year

• Ideas about change- How should we model the process of change

• Major components of the Change Model

• Discussion

Texas A&M University

TECHNOLOGY ENABLED ROOMS13 redesigned classrooms

CURRICULUM INTEGRATIONchanged first- and second-year engineering, math, physics and chemistry for all

students (6 coordinators)upper-division changes in CVEN, PETE, INEN, AERO, MEEN

TEAMING & ACTIVE LEARNINGfaculty workshops, student profiles, industry diversity training

Texas A&M University

ASSESSMENT & EVALUATIONNew professional staff, focus on faculty needs in course

revisions

INCLUSIVE LEARNING COMMUNITIESClusters- 70% first-year students & 25% second-year students, 94 faculty membersIndustry case studies with all first-year studentsGroup Study Workshops

Texas A&M University Performance Benefit: Grades & Standardized Tests

% Gain Greater Test than Traditional

0 5 10 2015

16%Standardized Critical Thinking15%Force Concept Inventory

10%Mechanics Baseline Test10%Calculus Concept Test

When compared to equivalent students in traditional engineering programs, after one year, students in the new curriculum perform better on standardized tests

and better in grades for follow on courses.

Texas A&M UniversityFOCUS ON UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS

Better retention

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

% R

eta

ine

d i

n E

ng

ine

eri

ng

TraditionalFC

TAMU Integrated First-Year Curriculum

Concerns Pilot section size

1994-95 Pilot: 50 students per section 1995-96 Pilot: 100 students per section

Dividing four hours of PHYS 218 (Mechanics) across two semesters was not a good idea. Students seemed to pay more attention to the MATH 151 course (a four-hour course). 1994-95 Pilot

PHYS218 (Mechanics) across two semesters

1995-96 Pilot: PHYS218 (Mechanics), Fall Semester (3 credits instead of 4) PHYS 208 (E&M), Spring Semester (3 credits instead of 4)

Overloading students Physics laboratories were done in-class using a “studio-like”

approach. $$$$$

Flexibility The availability of opportunities to students to “leave” the

integrated curriculum without major penalties. An intervention program was offered to students who were failing in some of the subjects [9] but the cost and energy required to run this program was also questioned.

The lack of participation by the pre-calculus, honor students, and students who placed out of courses in the integrated program.

Faculty and administrators were very concerned about the “platform independence” of the piloted program. Could only those “zealots” teach it?

How will engineering faculty be selected for participation? Chemical Engineering Department was concerned about

the one-semester chemistry course

TAMU Integrated First-Year Curriculum

Concerns

TAMU Integrated First-Year Curriculum

Visualization of Momentum 1999

1996

1997

1998NSF FundingFormed TeamInit. Planning Implementation

Excited TeamInitial Results

Excited Students

Larger pilotStable TeamPos. Results Chng Team

Little new

DecideForm Eval Tm.

New pilot Large TeamInitial Planning

Nothing’s WrongPersonalities

Poor Advising Interface

Nothing’s WrongPersonalities

Negative AnecdotesPoor Advising Interface

Nothing’s WrongPersonalities

Nothing’s NewPoor Teaming

Negative Anecdotes

Workshops to Address FearsPersonalities

Emphasizing Values

1994

1993 1995

NSF FundingNothing’s Wrong

Personalities

Mom. To ChangeRes. To Change

Number of Entering Freshmen in Block Type

0

400

800

1200

1600

2000

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Pre-Calc

AP Calc

Honors

No Phys Int

No Engl Int

Int Precalc

Full Int Calc

Total Number of Incoming Students to First-Year Courses/Year

TAMU Integrated First-Year Curriculum

Numerous Integrated Models to Serve Students

1570 1520 1480 1420

2060

Calc 2, Phys 2, Engr 2, Chem ( 300 )

Calc 2, Phys 2, Engr 2( 200 )

Calc 2, Engr 2, Chem( 300 )

Independent Courses( 300 )

Clusters areoffered to

students at eachlevel.

PRECALC

CALCULUS 1

BEYONDCALCULUS

1

500

1000

300

Independent Courses( 200 )

Precalc, Chem, Engr 0( 300 )

Calc 1, Phys 1, Engr 1, Engl 1 ( 100 )

Calc 1, Phys 1, Engr 1( 600 )

Calc 1, Engr 1 ( 150 )

Independent Courses( 150 )

Calc 2, Engr 1( 50 )

Independent Courses( 250 )

Numerous Integrated Models to Serve Students

Lessons from Foundation Coalition Curriculum Change Experiences

• Focus on faculty behavior, not the curriculum or technology.

• People outside the pilot groups need to be engaged from the beginning.

• Assessment data is necessary but not sufficient.

• Successful change requires energy and time.

• Don’t become surprised or defensive when resistance appears.

• Persevere through turmoil.

• Zealous change champions cannot institutionalize the change by themselves.

• Articulate an explicit process for the change.

• Anxiety 1: Fear of learning something new; fear

of changing, based on fear of the unknown.

• Anxiety 2: Fear that if I don’t change and learn

how to learn, things will go badly for me.

• Proposition 1 About Learning

Anxiety 2 must be greater than Anxiety 1.

Change - What is it?

Reasons to Change

Schein, Edgar H., Organizational and Managerial Culture

• Change occurs in stages

• If you want to facilitate change, then you need to facilitate movement from one stage to the next. Don’t expect a person to change all at once.

• Different people understand different things about change

Change - What is it?

Change: Ignorance to Action

Ignorance

Awareness

Interest

Decision

Commitment

Action

Passive Information Gathering

Active Information Gathering

Change: Ignorance to Action

Betrayal

Denial

Crisis

Search for Solution

Energy for the Job

Time

Individual’s Approach to Change

Search forSolutions

IdentityCrisis

Denial

Betrayal TIME

Group’s Approach to Change

Nature of Change Nature of Resistance

Organizational Culture

Leadership Change Dynamics

Concepts in Organizational Change

• Who has to change?– Behavior– Attitude– Belief– Value

• What is the timeline for change?

• What are the available resources to fuel change?

Nature of Change

“... we use the term “profound change” to describe organizational change that combines shifts in people’s values, aspirations, and behaviors with “other” shifts to processes, strategies, practices, and systems.... In profound change there is learning. The organization doesn’t just do something new, it builds its capacity for doing things in a new way--indeed, it builds capacity for ongoing change.... It is not enough to change strategies, structures, and systems, unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures, and systems also changes.”

Senge, Peter, et. al., The Dance of Change

Nature of ChangeProfound Change

• Adaptive Learning (Senge) / Single-Loop Learning (Argyris)

– learning that increases the probability of survival, i.e., coping or survival learning

– focus: solution to a problem

– e.g., passing a test, problem solving, engineering design

• Generative Learning (Senge) / Double-Loop Learning (Argyris)– meta-level: learning that enhances my ability to create

– recursive: improving personal algorithms, models, processes

– focus: increased personal capacity

– e.g., reflection, learning to learn, learning to improveSenge, Peter, The Fifth Discipline

Argyris, Chris, “Teaching Smart People to Learn,” Harvard Business Review

Nature of ChangeAdaptive Learning vs. Generative Learning

• Resistance isn't an indication that something is wrong with what you are trying to change. It is an indication that something is happening. It is a good sign! If you treat everything you see as resistance, you can be wrong. It may be a lack of understanding of what you are doing as opposed to not liking what you are doing. The remedies for each are quite different. You will learn many important things from resistance, which will make your implementation planning go a lot smoother.

James Hunthttp://www.top7business.com/archives/management/20000208.html

Jim Hunt, Principal

James W. Hunt & Associates

The "Change II" Management Consulting Firm

Web address: www.jameswhunt.com

Resistance

• Resistance is inevitable, not bad– People are at different stages in changing

– People move from stage to stage at different rates

– People move from stage to stage in response to different stimuli

– Resistance is similar to turbulence

• Ignorance facilitates resistance; resistance facilitates ignorance• Responses to resistance

– Dismissal: “You’re an idiot.”

– Bulldozer: “You just don’t understand and I will try again to convince you of the correctness of my approach.”

– Let’s talk: “What you say has merit. Let me understand your concerns and let’s review how an alternate proposal might address your concerns.”

– Anticipate: Don’t be placed in a position of selling a curriculum proposal; instead position yourself as responding to a felt need

Resistance

How to Recognize Resistance• Confusion

• Immediate Criticism

• Denial

• Malicious Compliance

• Sabotage

• Easy Agreement

• Deflection (changing the subject)

• Silence

• In-Your-Face CriticismMaurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 2

Resistance

• Level 1: The Idea Itself (primarily intellectual)– Communicating the Idea

-- Relative Advantage -- Simplicity

-- Compatibility -- Easy to Test

– Involvement

• Level 2: Deeper Issues (primarily emotional)– Listen for and address: Distrust, Bureaucratic Culture, Punishments

and Rewards, Loss of Respect and Face, Fear of Isolation, Events in the World

• Level 3: Deeply Embedded (viewed as enemy)

– Pay attention and attend to issues around

--Historic Animosity -- Conflicting Values and Vision

Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 8

How Intense is the Resistance

What is your contribution to resistance?

• “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”

Tolstoy

• “We have met the enemy, and he is us”

Pogo

• “We must become the change we wish to see in the world.”

Gandhi

Response to Resistance

Touchstones in responding to resistance• TOUCHSTONE NO. 1: Maintain clear focus

– Keep both long and short view– Persevere

• TOUCHSTONE NO. 2: Embrace resistance• TOUCHSTONE NO. 3: Respect those who resist

– Struggle for respect– Respect vs. trust– Listen with interest– Tell the truth

• TOUCHSTONE NO. 4: Relax– Stay calm to stay engaged– Know their intentions

• TOUCHSTONE NO. 5: Join with the Resistance– Begin together– Change the game– Find themes and possibilities

Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 5

Response to Resistance

Change and Resistance

Commitment to Change

New Learning

Concerns, e.g.,• Fear

• Negative Assessment

• Zealot Arrogance

Positive Impact

Negative Impact

Possibly Improved Results

What is it?

Culture

“Culture eats change

for breakfast”James Hunt

http://www.top7business.com/archives/management/20000208.htmlJim Hunt, Principal

James W. Hunt & Associates

The "Change II" Management Consulting Firm

Web address: www.jameswhunt.com

What is it?

Culture• Culture is the collection of lessons (which become

unwritten assumptions) that a group has learned that have become applied so often that members of the group no longer question their correctness or even acknowledge their existence. “It just the way we do things here.” Frequently, these lessons were learned during the early history of the group and were often generated or espoused by its founder.– because it happened this way, it did not happen another way

– because it was successful, it must have been the right way to do it

• These lessons are communicated explicitly or implicitly to new members of the group.

What is it?

Levels of Culture

• Artifacts– visible organizational structures and process

– easy to observe, difficult to decipher, ambiguous

• Espoused values, rules, behavioral norms– strategies, goals, espoused rationalizations

– articulated reasons for actions, (theories of action, Argyris)

• Basic underlying assumptions– unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs

– theories-in-use (Argyris)Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, second edition

What is it?

Changing Culture• “You cannot create a new culture. You can

immerse yourself in studying a culture ... Until you understand it. Then you can propose new values, introduce new ways of doing things, and articulate new governing ideas. Over time, these actions will set the stage for new behavior. If people who adopt the new behavior feel that it helps them ... The organizational culture may embody a different set of assumptions, and a different way of looking at things ...”

Edgar Schein, in Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

• “Leadership takes place every day. It cannot be the responsibility of the few, a rare event, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Heifetz, Ronald and Donald Laurie, “The Work of Leadership,” Harvard

Business Review, Jan-Feb 1997

• Leadership is too important to be left in the hands of the few people near the top of the organizational hierarchy.

Leadership

• Inner drive/energy: necessary to initiate and sustain leadership of change over extended periods of time.

• Intellectual capacity: necessary to listen to input from diverse sources and synthesize vision and strategy

• Integrity: necessary to synthesize vision and strategy that benefits the organization first and the individual second

• Mental/emotion health: necessary for self-confidence and interpersonal skills

Kotter, John P., A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs From Management, New York: The Free Press, 1990

Attributes of Effective Leaders

• Change is hard work.

• Leadership begins with values

• Intellectual leads physical

• Real changes takes real change

• Leadership is a team sport

• Expect to be surprised

• Today competes with tomorrow

• Better is better

• Focus on the future

• Learning from doing

• Grow people

• Reflect

Sullivan and Harper, Hope is not a Method

Leadership for Change

• “Get on the balcony”, get perspective

• Identify the adaptive challenge

• Regulate distress: not too high, not too low

• Maintain disciplined attention

• Give the work back to people

• Protect voices of leadership from below

Heifetz, Ronald and Donald Laurie, “The Work of Leadership,” Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 1997

Leadership for Change

Dynamics of Change Process

• Unfreeze the system– Is the organization ready– Have you addressed concerns to get started

• Institute a change– Recognize nature of change, resistance, culture– Target who will change and how to diffuse

• Stabilize (refreeze) the system

Drone Zone

Change Dynamics

Change Ready Zone

Challenge

ResourcesCompetencies, Time, Reserves

Change ReadyZonePanic

Zone

Kriegel & Brandt“Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers”

Skill level req’d.,

Speed of change,Effort to

learn

Change Dynamics

Challenges of Initiating• “We don’t have time!”

– Challenge: control over personal time

• “We have no help!”– Challenge: inadequate coaching, guidance, and support

• “This stuff isn’t relevant!” “Why?”– Challenge: relevance

• “They’re not walking the talk!”– Challenge: management clarity and consistency

Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

Change Dynamics

Challenges of Sustaining Transformation

• “This stuff is ____!”– Challenge: fear and anxiety

• “This stuff isn’t working!”– Challenge: negative assessment of progress

• “We have the right way!” / “They don’t understand us!”– Challenge: isolation and arrogance, true believers

and non-believersSenge, Peter, The Dance of Change

Change Dynamics

Challenges of Redesigning and Rethinking

• “Who’s in charge of this stuff?”– Challenge: prevailing governance structure

• “We keep reinventing the wheel!”– Challenge: diffusion, inability to transfer knowledge

• “Where are we going?”– Challenge: organization strategy and purpose

Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

Late Majority

34%

Laggards 16%

Early Majority

34%

Early Adopters

13%

Innovators3%

Change Dynamics

Type and Distribution of Adopters

Rogers, Everett M., Diffusion of Innovations, fourth edition

Change Dynamics

Diffusion of Innovation: Patterns• Innovators

– Venturesomeness; more cosmopolite social relationships; innovators play gatekeeping role in the flow of new ideas into a system

• Early adopters

– More integrated into local system than innovators; innovators are cosmopolites, early adopters are localites; greatest degree of opinion leadership

• Early majority

– Interact frequently with peers; seldom hold positions of opinion leadership; unique position makes them an important link in the diffusion process; may deliberate for some time before completely adopting a new idea

• Late majority

– Adoption may be result of increasing network peer pressure; weight of system norms must definitely favor an innovation to help convince late majority

• Laggards

– Most local outlook; many are near isolates; point of reference for the laggard is the past; decisions often based on what has been done previously

Willingness to Commit to Change

Investment in Change Initiative

New Learning

Change Dynamics

Change Reinforcing Processes

Possibly Improved Results

• Personal Results

• Organizational Results

Growing Network of Colleagues