Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education

 

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Focus on Outcomes: Fostering Systemic Departmental Improvements

Daniel L. Reinholz, San Diego State University
Mary E. Pilgrim, San Diego State University
Amelia Stone-Johnson, California State University, Fullerton
Karen Falkenburg, Colorado State University
Christopher Geanious, Colorado State University

License: CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

This article describes how a focus on outcomes can be a tool for guiding systemic change. By focusing on positive outcomes to be achieved, a group can guide its collective efforts toward an ideal future rather than becoming fixated on individual problems to solve. While there is support for an outcome-guided approach in the literature on individual and organizational change, this approach has not been used extensively to support department-level changes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.