Toward Measures of Faculty Adaptability to Curricular Change

Calls for curricular change assume immediate adoption from faculty, overlooking their independent decision-making agency. Understanding of the response behavior of faculty members at the individual level can shed important insights into how to effectively enact and sustain change proposals. Quantitative measures are lacking to assess faculty adaptability to change. We synthesized a conceptual framework to measure faculty adaptability to curricular change. We focus on both self-efficacy and willingness to adapt during change along three phases of adaptability as self-regulation: planning, adjusting and reflecting. We developed and administered measures with two major groups who were engaged in curricular change contexts: those who self-identify as teaching-focused faculty (Group A, 53 participants) and those who self-identify as research-focused faculty (Group B, 102 participants). Faculty participants did not report significant differences in self-efficacy in adaptability; however, Group A participants reported statistically significant higher willingness to plan, adjust and reflect during curricular change. Furthermore, all faculty participants reported low self-efficacy in reflecting, which might limit the sustainability of adaptation during change. This work provides a first step toward measures of faculty adaptability. In addition, this study highlights the importance of being aware of faculty willingness to engage in curricular change based on their roles and responsibilities. Creative ways are needed to encourage self-efficacy in reflecting to sustain adaptability during change. There is an opportunity to systematically assess the validity of this instrument in different curricular change contexts.