Teaching Journeys of Engineering Faculty: Stories of Transition

The need for more engineers with a broader world view has led to a call for a change in teaching strategies in engineering. Since developing “evidence-based” teaching innovations has not been enough to effect pervasive change in teaching practices in engineering schools, a need to understand how these innovations are adopted is broadly acknowledged. To aid in this understanding, we interviewed 3 individuals to see how they perceived their teaching journey and why they moved from teaching how they were taught to adopting student-centered practices. A narrative framework was used in the development of the interview questions and analysis of the responses. The three individuals described their initial approach to teaching with respect to how they were taught. Mentors and colleagues were important along the change path to these individuals. Lack of time and a cultural context that did not value teaching were perceived as the barriers to changing teaching practices.