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This paper presents progress and insights from the NSF-funded “Transforming STEM Education using an Asset-Based Ecosystem Model” (Eco-STEM) project at California State University Los Angeles, a minority-serving institution where over 70% of students are Hispanic/Latiné, Pell-eligible, and first-generation. Historically, the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST) has implemented various intervention programs - preparatory courses, cohorting, tutoring, workshops, and peer-mentoring - to support students from their transition to college through graduation. While these efforts have led to incremental improvements, they have not delivered the transformative outcomes we envisioned. A key realization from these interventions is the need for a new approach that meets our students “where they are”. This prompted a shift from operating through the lenses of a rigid, "factory model" of education—which assumes uniformity in student input and output—to an adaptable ecosystem framework that leverages its agents' assets and community cultural wealth. The Eco-STEM project focuses on developing structures and tools to allow the current system, constrained by factory-like processes, to evolve into an asset-based ecosystem that better serves the diverse needs of its agents—students, faculty, and staff. Key initiatives include: (1) the Faculty Fellow Community of Practice, a year-long cohort engaging in discussions on topics such as identity, teacher identity, and cultural wealth, culminating in Action Research Teaching (ART) projects; (2) the Lecturer Faculty Workshops, providing condensed versions of the Faculty Fellow Community of Practice experience; (3) the Educational Ecosystem Health Survey, which uses validated constructs to assess the well-being of the system's members; (4) a new Peer Observation Tool and Process focused on formative, growth-oriented feedback for faculty; (5) a new Student Opinion Survey designed around the ecosystem model, examining classroom climate, structure, and vibrancy; and (6) the Mental Model Survey, which assesses faculty perspectives on academia through the lens of ecosystem and factory educational paradigms. This paper briefly discusses the tools and strategies developed, lessons learned through implementation, and team member reflections on how creating educational spaces that value and adapt to the unique strengths of students, faculty, and staff can lead to thriving outcomes for all.
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Exploring the Impact of Introducing Asset-based Thinking on Faculty Perspectives
This research, full paper examines the impact of introducing asset-based perspectives on faculty mental models of teaching and learning through participation in a Community of Practice. Ongoing research at California State University, Los Angeles is exploring how faculty perspectives are affected after participating in a community of practice intended to promote asset-based thinking towards students. This research challenges the factory-based framing of engineering education and advocates for an ecosystem model, where all participants-students, faculty, and staff-recognize their interdependence and embrace authenticity. This paper is based on qualitative data from minute papers, or participant reflections. Through inductive qualitative coding of this data, the research team has developed a code book with themes around Insights into Mindsets and Critical Points regarding understanding asset-based perspectives. Our results, contribute to the conversation about changing mental models, by tracing the journey of different faculty as they learn about asset-based perspective, process their learning through discussion and application, and how introducing this different framework affects faculty perspectives on students. This conversation is particularly important as we continue to create more inclusive classrooms, especially when faculty and students have differing experiences, based on different social identities (e.g. different racial/ethnic identities, socioeconomic status, gender identity). The contributions will also include implications for practice as we understand how faculty consider asset-based perspectives.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2013630
- PAR ID:
- 10637600
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-5150-7
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Washington, DC, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892826
