PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Making RUME for institutional change
Page: 1089
Overwhelming evidence favors the use of active learning in undergraduate STEM classrooms.Thus, the issue faced by educators is no longer what to do in classrooms, but how to enact whatis known to be effective. This poses a challenge, because faculty teaching is embedded in thecontext of departments, universities, and the broader disciplinary culture. Thus, improvingeducation requires knowledge of how systems work and how to enact systemic change. Whileorganizational change has studied these issues for decades in nonprofit and business settings,the application of this knowledge to higher education is relatively new. Accordingly, thistheoretical paper provides an introduction to the organizational change literature in the contextof higher education and provides an example of its application through Departmental ActionTeams (DATs). By highlighting five principles from organizational change, this paper serves asa reference for change agents wishing to improve undergraduate mathematics education.