Tracking the spread of research-based instructional strategies

The adoption of research-based instruction strategies (RBIS) by faculty is generally perceived as being slow. Faculty resist change, reject data that demonstrates the effectiveness of RBIS, and prioritize research over teaching. Even when faculty attempt to use RBIS, they often do so with poor fidelity to the original design of the RBIS. By organizing faculty into communities of practice, we are observing a sudden surge in the adoption of RBIS across STEM departments. Through this work in progress we present preliminary data that we have collected to understand exactly why many faculty are now adopting RBIS. While this effort has led to the adoption of many RBIS, we focus on the adoption of personal response systems (clickers) and Peer Instruction. Preliminary data suggests that faculty adoption is being driven by community and collaborative instruction.