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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
From Mind To Matter: Patterns Of Innovation In The Archaeological Record And The Ecology Of Social Learning, Kathryn Demps, Nicole M. Herzog, Matt Clark
From Mind To Matter: Patterns Of Innovation In The Archaeological Record And The Ecology Of Social Learning, Kathryn Demps, Nicole M. Herzog, Matt Clark
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Archaeology and cultural evolution theory both predict that environmental variation and population size drive the likelihood of inventions (via individual learning) and their conversion to population-wide innovations (via social uptake). We use the case study of the adoption of the bow and arrow in the Great Basin to infer how patterns of cultural variation, invention, and innovation affect investment in new technologies over time and the conditions under which we could predict cultural innovation to occur. Using an agent-based simulation to investigate the conditions that manifest in the innovation of technology, we find the following: (1) increasing ecological variation results …
Development Of The Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument To Measure Factors Associated With Instructional Practice In The Context Of Institutional Change, John P. Ziker, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle
Development Of The Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument To Measure Factors Associated With Instructional Practice In The Context Of Institutional Change, John P. Ziker, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Background: Many institutional and departmentally focused change efforts have sought to improve teaching in STEM through the promotion of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). Even with these efforts, EBIPs have not become the predominant mode of teaching in many STEM departments. To better understand institutional change efforts and the barriers to EBIP implementation, we developed the Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument (CAFI) to probe faculty member characteristics beyond demographic attributes at the individual level. The CAFI probes multiple constructs related to institutional change including perceptions of the degree of mutual advantage of taking an action (strategic complements), trust and interconnectedness among colleagues …
Innovative Teaching Knowledge Stays With Users, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle, John P. Ziker
Innovative Teaching Knowledge Stays With Users, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle, John P. Ziker
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Programs seeking to transform undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses often strive for participating faculty to share their knowledge of innovative teaching practices with other faculty in their home departments. Here, we provide interview, survey, and social network analyses revealing that faculty who use innovative teaching practices preferentially talk to each other, suggesting that greater steps are needed for information about innovative practices to reach faculty more broadly.