Resumen de The Challenge of Using Research-Based Instructional Strategies: insights from an effectiveness study of the intrinsic motivation course conversion
Dong San Choi, Katherine A. Earl, Kelly J. Cross, Geoffrey L. Herman
As awareness grows about how difficult it is to increase the use of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) amongengineering faculty, we must develop a better understanding of not only what RBIS work, but also how they might failwhen used by inexperienced practitioners. We conducted an effectiveness study to explore whether the course design andtargeted outcomes of one RBIS—an intrinsic motivation course conversion—were maintained after control of a convertedcourse was turned over from the designing research team to a new set of instructors. The study was conducted as anamplified secondary analysis, combining data collected from multiple offerings of the converted course. The studytriangulates data from course artifacts such as course syllabi and assignments, motivation surveys from 352 students, andpost-course interviews with 27 students. Analysis of course artifacts revealed a high fidelity of implementation. Analysis ofsurveys and interviews revealed that small changes in the team formation process (a shift of project selection from beforeteams are formed to after teams are formed) for students’ projects significantly undermined students’ intrinsic motivationto learn—a core targeted outcome of this RBIS. We found that small changes in implementation can undermine thetargeted outcomes for the intrinsic motivation course conversion. The documentation and promotion of RBIS mustcarefully consider how to support faculty through what may be the inevitable shortcomings in achieving the targetedoutcomes of RBIS as the result of small changes in implementation.
