CHOICE OF INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION-MAKING MODEL OR THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK INFLUENCES RESEARCH STUDY DESIGN, RESULTS, AND INTERPRETATIONS

Research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) offer opportunities to improve the learning outcomes in geoscience and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. However, widespread uptake of RBIS has been slow. Studies on instructional decision making can help inform how to close this gap between the development and testing of RBIS and actual RBIS implementation. The choice of theoretical framework for such studies impacts the research study design, the types of data collected, and how the data are interpreted about whether and how to implement RBIS

This presentation will focus only on illustrating how the application of three different theoretical frameworks to the same data set can lead to different interpretations of the data. The primary research question investigated in this study is: What influences geoscience instructors’ decisions of whether and how to implement RBIS in their courses? The data that is the subject of this presentation is interview data about how geoscience instructors perceive the value placed on teaching in their departments and the influence that those perceptions have on instructors’ RBIS-related decisions.

The three instructional decision-making models that will be discussed are the Institutional Model of Operational-Level Decision-Making (IMO) (Heikkila & Isett, 2004), the Garbage Can Model (GCM) (Cohen et al., 1972), and the Integrated Ethical Decision-Making Model (I-EDM) (Schwartz, 2016). The IMO framework is useful for interpreting data through the lens of instructor’s rationality. The GCM is useful for interpreting data with an eye toward the alignment of solutions, problems, and participants. The I-EDM is useful for interpreting data through the perspective of personal values and experiences. An objective of this presentation is to demonstrate how different theoretical frameworks can yield different insights into the same research question using the same data set.