From Vision to Action: Using Pathway Models to Identify Key Steps in Catalyzing Department-Level Transformation

The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) seeks to improve undergraduate STEM education for students from all backgrounds and regions across the United States, in all higher education settings. To achieve this, PULSE engages academic departments in three complementary programs (Recognition, Ambassador, and Regional Networks) that provide department-level professional development aimed at developing skills and knowledge relevant to promoting change in their educational programs aligned with recommendations of Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (Brewer & Smith, 2011). These programs emphasize how institutional change works and build practical skills for engaging colleagues, holding productive discussions, and reaching consensus. To support evaluation efforts for continuous improvement, PULSE made the causal links between program activities and outcomes explicit by creating program-specific pathway models grounded in a unifying Theory of Change (ToC). Pathway modeling, a widely used tool for evaluation planning, clarified how program activities develop core capacities, enable transformation strategies, and culminate in department-level outcomes. Developing these models highlighted design elements of PULSE’s programs that we propose are key to departments enacting and sustaining change. Both the process and outcomes of our approach can inform the efforts and evaluation of other STEM transformation organizations. This model provides departments and networks with a map that outlines what to measure, when, and why. This moves departmental change efforts from workshop learning to sustainable program change.