FACULTY’S INTEREST TO ADOPT A CURRICULAR MODULE TO SUPPORT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING ABOUT THE FOOD-ENERGY-WATER NEXUS

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus framework affords a holistic perspective on the interactions between food, energy, and water and the trade-offs associated with human and natural systems regarding resources’ allocation decisions made by different actors. Undergraduate education about the FEW Nexus and other socio-hydrologic issues (SHIs) needs to provide tools that enhance understanding of the behavior of these systems, and how to integrate this knowledge into decision-making. However, undergraduate faculty may face difficulties accessing and integrating purposefully designed curricular resources that focus on SHIs. Within this context, a Faculty Development Program (FDP) was designed to introduce faculty to a curricular module and its instructional resources focused on the FEW Nexus to adopt in their own practice. This study aims to understand, among other goals, how the FDP has supported instructors’ interest in adopting the educational resources? We collected data from N = 54 participants through a pre and post survey and interviewed n = 15 participants. We used the diffusion of innovations model developed by Rogers (2003) that helps understand reasonings behind the adoption of innovations, or instructional innovations for the purposes of this study. We evaluated the first three stages of the innovation-decision process. First, “knowledge” refers to the perceived relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability, and complexity of the innovation. Second, “persuasion” takes place when an individual develops a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the innovation. Third, “decision” occurs when an individual decides to adopt or reject the innovation. Results suggest that over three quarters of participants would use the curricular resources in their classrooms to support students’ systems thinking and critical thinking, local and regional understanding, data analysis and interpretation, decision-making, and use of data-related tools. The results also provide evidence of the importance of departmental support to improve instruction.