PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Helping instructors to adopt research-supported techniques: Lessons from IBL workshops
Page: 869
Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a research-supported form of active learning in mathematics. While studies continually show benefits of active learning, it is difficult to get faculty to adopt these methods. We present results from a set of intensive, one-week workshops designed to teach university mathematics instructors to use IBL. We use survey and interview data to explore why these workshops successfully got many participants (at least 58%) to adopt IBL. Results are framed through a three-stage theory of instructor change developed by Paulsen and Feldman (1995). We focus specifically on the first stage, ‘unfreezing.’ In this stage, instructors gain the motivation to change, so these findings may provide the most useful lessons for helping more instructors to adopt research-supported instructional strategies. One of the key factors for the high adoption of IBL was portraying it broadly and inclusively in a variety of contexts, rather than as a highly prescriptive method.