Cultivating Responsive, Student-Centered Instructional Practice Through a Community of Practice-Inspired Instructional Training Program

Background: Engineering education has been slow to incorporate student-centered pedagogy into teaching practices despite demonstrated benefits to students through educational research. This study analyzed data from the Instructional Incubator (I2)-module sequence, a two-semester course initiative in a biomedical engineering (BME) department that engaged teams of students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty in effective instructional practices and theory while guiding the teams in developing one-credit modules for early-career BME students. Student-instructor teams also had the opportunity to teach their modules with guidance from an engineering education faculty the following semester. The I2-module sequence aimed to develop teaching practices characterized by responsive, student-centered instruction through incorporating principles of situated learning. Purpose: This study sought to explore the extent to which designing an intervention based on Community of Practice (CoP) concepts influenced the teaching practices its participants applied in their own teaching. Design: We collected reflection data from non-faculty participants through a post-I2-module experience survey and analyzed the data for evidence of how participants demonstrated responsive, student-centered instruction in their modules. We applied codes about curricular elements and their influences that categorized changes as implemented or proposed and coded reasons for change when participants provided them. Results: Our findings demonstrated that the CoP-inspired I2-module sequence supported engineering educators in employing instructional practices that were student-centered and responsive—examples of which appear in the results. Conclusions: This study also discusses elements of the I2-module sequence that could be beneficial for engineering educators seeking to create instructional training to prepare instructors to adopt and successfully apply responsive, student-centered pedagogical practices in their own classrooms.