The Challenge of Change in Engineering Education: Is it the Diffusion of Innovations or Transformative Learning?

Development and dissemination perspectives based on diffusion of innovations theory are usually adopted as a change model for the broader adoption of evidence-based innovative educational practices. However efforts based on such perspectives have mostly not been successful in disseminating an educational innovation far and wide. We argue in this paper that the challenge of adopting and sustaining a new educational approach at a broader scale is an issue of the transformation of academics’ beliefs and values. Transformative learning theory provides a framework for change that is more appropriate for the nature of educational change. We provide a comparative analysis of diffusion of innovations and transformative learning theories and describe the nature of the challenge of educational change from the perspective of both theories.