2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Identifying Shared Meaning to Enhance a Collaborative Teaching Culture

Presented at Environmental Engineering Division (ENVIRON) Technical Session 3 - Innovative Pedagogy

In 2020, Montana State University initiated a five-year NSF-funded Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) project with the vision of transforming the traditional topic-focused course structure in environmental engineering into an integrated project-based curriculum (IPBC) that supports a climate of collaborative and continuous learning among faculty and students. The curriculum redesign process engaged faculty in an extensive consensus-building process to define desired student learning outcomes for the program. In the transformed curriculum, faculty collectively agreed to integrate systems thinking, sustainability, and professionalism competencies and to cultivate students’ identity as environmental engineers throughout the degree.

To achieve these goals, there must be a level of shared meaning around the four constructs of interest—systems thinking, sustainability, professionalism, environmental engineering—to guide pedagogical decision making among faculty. A qualitative cultural assessment was conducted to investigate, analyze, and describe the shared meanings faculty hold around the four constructs. The goal of the assessment was to uncover areas of shared meaning with the strongest consensus within and across constructs. By eliciting and describing “definitions by consensus,” faculty will be able to generate consistency in teaching and assessment practices throughout the curriculum. The culture assessment process undertaken by the department and its outcomes will be of interest to other programs seeking to foster collaborative teaching and to enhance collective ownership of degree program learning outcomes.

Authors

Brooke Lahneman Montana State University [biography]

Brooke Lahneman is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship at Montana State Univer¬sity. Her research contributes to a deeper understanding of the changes organiza¬tions and industries can make toward more sustainable operations and systems.
Susan Gallagher Montana State University [biography]

Susan Gallagher is the Education and Workforce Program Manager at the Western Transportation Institute (WTI), a transportation research center within Montana State University's College of Engineering.
Dr. Catherine M. Kirkland http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3268-8570 Montana State University [biography]

Dr. Catherine Kirkland is an assistant professor of Environmental Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University. In addition to her background in environmental engineering, Catherine also holds a BA in Anthropology and Sociology from Rhodes College. Her research areas include beneficial biofilms, nuclear magnetic resonance, and engineering education.
Dr. Kathryn Plymesser Montana State University [biography]

Dr. Plymesser hold a B.S. (Case Western Reserve University ’01) and Ph.D. (MSU ’14) degrees in Civil Engineering. She began her academic career at Montana State University – Billings with a teaching and research tenure-track appointment. Dr. Plymesser joined the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University in 2016. Her research is focused in ecohydraulics and fish passage with a particular fondness for the application of hydraulic and fluid dynamic models to answer research questions in natural settings. Dr. Plymesser currently teaches Introduction to Environmental Engineering Design and Sustainability, Open Channel Hydrualics, and River Modeling.
Ellen Lauchnor Montana State University [biography]

Ellen Lauchnor is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University.
Amanda Hohner http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7704-4464 Montana State University [biography]

Dr. Amanda Hohner is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at Montana State University. She teaches courses in Environmental Engineering and conducts research on drinking water.
Adrienne Phillips http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3291-710X Montana State University [biography]

Dr. Adie Phillips is an associate professor in the Civil Engineering department at Montana State University. She teaches environmental engineering courses and does research in biofilms and engineering education.
Dr. Craig R. Woolard Montana State University
Dr. Otto R. Stein Montana State University

Download paper (1.88 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session