Associated Grants & Publications
- Eric Pappas
- Apr 5, 2019
- 14 min read
Updated: Aug 9, 2019
Over the last decade, we have been researching and experimenting with methods for intentional self-development. The articles we have published document our progress and what events brought us to the development of the Fast Change Project and methodology. These efforts have been supported by the National Science Foundation grants listed below.
National Science Foundation Grants
The work and research conducted in the following grants have supported the development and methodology of Sustainable Personality and Fast Change.
1) Pappas, E., Principal Investigator. (2012). National Science Foundation (Engineering Education). Research into Instructional Content and Methodologies for Teaching Sustainability
$431,000. Co-PIs: Nagel, R., Benton, M., Pappas, J., Frazier, H.
Objectives: To research sustainability across five contexts (social, environmental, economic, technical, and individual) in order to determine the best methodologies for teaching these contexts across academic disciplines (in our case: engineering, integrated science and technology, psychology, education, English, and communication studies). We will determine the most effective ways in which to assess these methodologies using behaviors as educational outcomes. We believe that an individual’s behaviors are a more effective measure of learning than are content knowledge or attitudes.
2) Pappas, E. Principal Investigator. (2009). National Science Foundation (IEECI: Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure). Integrating Developmental Instruction in Sustainability Contexts into an Undergraduate Engineering Design Curriculum. Exploratory Grant: $150,000. Co-PIs: Olga Pierrakos, Robert Nagel.
Summary and Objectives: Developmental instruction in sustainability contexts (environmental, social, economic, technical) in an engineering design curriculum will offer a strong foundation and framework upon which to build an engineering program that will teach students the necessary methodologies for designing for sustainability. While instruction in sustainability has increasingly become a component of undergraduate engineering programs, often instruction extends little beyond environmental contexts and some instruction in social contexts (usually related to social justice). Instruction in sustainability contexts (as per the Brundtland Report and others) in the current proposal will employ a developmental approach using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills (cognitive—thinking skills, affective—attitudes and growth, and psychomotor—manual skills). There have been three major pitfalls in instruction in sustainability in engineering curricula: 1) Too often sustainability instruction is nearly absent or adjunct to technical instruction; 2) Few programs address multiple contexts in sustainability, especially focusing on the interdependency among contexts; and 3) The speed of integrating sustainability instruction into engineering curricula is too slow to match the speed at which we need to confront immediate local and global sustainability problems. During this two-year effort, we will accomplish the following:
Integrate instruction in sustainability (in all the above contexts) into our six-course three- year design-to-build curriculum that models workplace practice;
Develop innovative developmental hands-on instructional methodologies (using Bloom’s Taxonomy to create individual and collaborative problem solving projects) for teaching sustainability in each context that demonstrates the interdependence among all contexts; and
Develop methods for evaluating sustainability projects that support the development of students’ design competences, cognitive processes (re: Bloom), and life long learning skills.
3) Pierrakos, O. Principal Investigator. (2008). National Science Foundation CCLI: Design and Implementation of an Innovative Problem-based Learning Model and Assessment Tools in Undergraduate Engineering Education. Co-PI: Eric Pappas, Robert Nagel. Exploratory Grant: $150,000.
Brief Background and Overview of Grant: Problem-based learning (PBL), a powerful student-centered pedagogy, offers a strong framework upon which to build a curriculum that will allow our students to learn essential and globally competitive skills. Some of the benefits of PBL include: (1) improving students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills, (2) promoting high motivation for students, (3) increasing the ability to integrate and apply engineering skills with fundamentals of math and science, (4) enhancing the acquisition and retention of knowledge, and (5) facilitating collaborative learning. Yet, although widely used in engineering, particularly during the senior year, PBL practices have not extensively been integrated throughout engineering curricula, and limited studies exist to provide sufficient support for PBL. There are two main pitfalls of PBL practice: (1) a poor classification of what constitutes PBL practice and how such experiences can be integrated throughout the curriculum, and (2) limited assessment studies exist, mainly because PBL enables students to develop skills that are difficult to measure. In fact, for many educators, PBL refers mainly to open-ended problems that incorporate team-based collaborative learning. In our current effort, though, we expand upon this one-dimensional PBL classification and develop a multi-dimensional PBL model to promote diverse cognitive experiences.
GOAL: Enhance undergraduate engineering education by promoting and implementing a new model of problem-based learning (PBL) and innovative assessment tools.
Objective 1 – Expose our engineering students to a broad range of PBL experiences
(a) Classify and design innovative PBL experiences integrated within four engineering courses (Intro. to Engineering, Design I, Design II, and Statics/Dynamics) in our program
(b) Implement a broad range of PBL experiences that transcend disciplinary boundaries and enable students to experience different modes of thinking, learning, and problem solving
Objective 2 – Effectively evaluate and assess PBL experiences introduced into the curriculum
(a) Employ a mixed-methods approach to assess engineering students’ learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) as a result of participating in PBL practice
(b) Design innovative assessment tools to be generalizable across PBL experiences and transferable across engineering programs
Objective 3 – Disseminate PBL experiences, assessment tools, and findings
(a) Publicize, in the form of conference publications, journal publications, and web-based dissemination, the project features, PBL experiences, assessment tools, and findings
(b) Recruit and establish STEM education partners at JMU for collaborative implementation of our PBL model and assessment tools
Juried Academic Journal Articles
1) Pappas, E., Lynch, R., Pappas, J., & Chamberlin, M. (2018). Fast Change: Immersive Self-development Strategies for Everyday Life. Journal of Advances in Education Research, Vol 3. No 3.
Abstract
Some of the greatest thinkers of our time have argued that among the most valuable
human skills is the ability to change one’s self at will. In the two studies described here, we address questions about the purpose, practice, and consequences of an immersive, week-long intentional self-development project intended to produce durable and lasting positive changes in the self. The objective of the current research was to examine the immediate and longer-term effects of an original self-development intervention that uses cognitive dissonance (the tension produced by the lack of alignment between one’s values and behaviors) to motivate and sustain a series of intentional changes made in the service of becoming one’s “ideal self” across all life contexts for one full week. Our results show promising evidence that the methodology we have developed leads to students’ progress in the areas of awareness, motivation, and intentional self-development.
2) Barrella, E., Pyburn Spratto, E., Pappas, E. & Nagel, R. (2018). Developing and Validating an Individual Sustainability Instrument with Engineering Students to Motivate Intentional Change. Sustainability, Vol. 10(8).
Abstract
This paper describes three studies that were conducted sequentially for purposes of validating the Individual Sustainability survey for use with undergraduate engineering students. During the first study, researchers administered the original 50-item Individual Sustainability survey to an undergraduate engineering class at a mid-sized University, using real and ideal self. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the survey instrument was reduced to 36 items, and reframed to compare real self to ideal professional engineer. The new version was administered to three cohorts of engineering students at the same institution, and factor structures were analyzed again. In order to provide more stable parameter estimates, a third study with 34 items was run with engineering students in similar courses at four different institutions. The methods and results of all three studies are described, to justify the survey’s evolution. This is followed by a discussion of the final survey instrument and approaches for administering the survey to undergraduate engineering students, or adapting survey administration for other student populations. The instrument, in its current form, is an effective way to identify dissonance between one’s real and ideal conceptualizations of self, and help individual students identify opportunities for personal change and professional growth toward sustainability values and behaviors.
3) Pappas, E. (2015). A Theory of Intrinsic Learning: Fundamental Concepts. Social Science Today, 2(1), 21-32.
Abstract
Learning methodologies that place the intrinsic knowledge and internal understanding of material at the center of instruction produce a more complete foundational and versatile understanding of subject matter than do traditional methods. Intrinsic learning is a universal approach to education that utilizes learning processes (the senses, perceptions, emotions, intellect, experiences, and aesthetics) all human beings have employed continually, at least to a degree, since birth. This methodology works to foster an understanding of our own intentional learning processes as well as to promote individual and collective harmony and well-being.
4) Nagel, R., Pappas, E., Swain, M. and Hazard, G. (2015). Understanding Students’ Values toward Individual Behaviors when in an Engineering Group. International Journal of Higher Education. Vol. 4, No. 2.
Abstract
In order to train young professionals, instructional methodologies in engineering need not only teach students knowledge, but must also instill the values and teach the behaviors—"competencies" students can demonstrate—required of professional practice. Herein, we focus on understanding the values and behaviors of students with respect to working as a member of an engineering group as a part of a course project. “Our hypotheses are (1) that the students’ values with respect to the behavior of individuals in a group will remain stable through the academic year and (2) there will be behavioral predictors to group-based values.” Our findings agree with the literature on societal groups which indicate that values should remain constant over time; we see here with our cohort of students that values not only remain stable but also, students maintain high agreement through the academic year. With respect to behavior predictors, the behaviors that repeatedly correlated or predicted positive group values were related to interpersonal skills rather than knowledge or learning. This finding is important as it points to a noted necessity to foster strong interpersonal skills among students. Students need to recognize that how they interact with their group is just as important as the skills being brought to the group. The results presented herein are a first step toward creating a “personalized” instructional approach that focuses on aligning individual values and behaviors when working in an engineering group.
5) Pappas, J. & Pappas, E. (2015). The Sustainable Personality: Values and Behaviors in
Individual Sustainability. International Journal of Higher Education. Vol. 4(1).
Abstract
Meaningful societal change begins with individual change. One cannot do for a community what one cannot do for one's self. The topic of Individual Sustainability is a controversial one, as students often appear to be unable to align their demonstrated behaviors with their admirable values related to sustainability. Individual behavior creates the foundation for action in social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and potentially guides our ability to work with one another to make life-affirming decisions. In short, it is a matter of aligning our day-to-day behaviors with our well-stated values that will result in greater sustainable community action. The general objective of this research is to determine how an interactive website providing multisource feedback on personality motivates students to change their behaviors or values, or to align their behaviors and values. We believe that creating a “cognitive dissonance” between individuals’ values and behaviors tends to encourage them to balance more effectively the self-knowledge that motivates intentional personal development towards more sustainable behavior. Most students indicated changes in their awareness, behaviors, and values following the study, but fewer indicated a greater alignment between their values and behaviors.
6) Pappas, E., Pappas, J., & Sweeney, D. (2014). Walking the Walk: Conceptual Foundations of the Sustainable Personality. Journal of Cleaner Production, 86(1), 323-334.
Abstract
Systems Theory in sustainability studies has normally not been extended beyond environmental, economic, and social contexts. The role of the individual is critical to the success of sustainability efforts across other contexts. Sustainable Personality explores the fundamental conceptual foundations for sustainable behavior and the role of the individual in environmental, social, and economic sustainability. This paper provides a broad historical foundation, starting with Greek philosophy, for the concept of Sustainable Personality. The authors’ purpose is to demonstrate that our global sustainability problems stem largely from individual limitations, and that meaningful human change begins with individual change. In particular, the challenge of increasing sustainable action by empowering individuals to align their behaviors with their admirable values is explored.
7) McDearis, K. & Pappas, E. (2014). “Individual Sustainability” (video). Journal of Cleaner Production, 86(1).
8) Pappas, E. & McDearis, K. (2014). “Who Are You, Anyway? Values and Behaviors in Conflict” (video). Journal of Cleaner Production, 86(1).
9) Pappas, E. (2013). “Radical Premises in Sustainability Reform.” Journal of Sustainability Education. Vol. 4, January.
Abstract
To most individuals, sustainability means environmentalism. This unfortunate approach to the current global crisis has ignored a more realistic systems approach, that sustainability includes social, cultural, economic, individual, and technical components. Even more tragic is our inability to align our very admirable values related to sustainability with our demonstrated and often unenlightened self-interest and partisan selfishness, for it is individual behavior that creates the foundation for action in all other contexts in sustainability and potentially guides our ability to work with one another to make life-affirming decisions. This paper addresses the tragic gap between what we profess to value and the collective behaviors we demonstrate.
10) Pappas, E., Pierrakos, O. & Nagel, R. (2012). “Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Teach Sustainability in Four Contexts in a Six Course Design Sequence.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 8(5), 397-405.
Abstract
Developmental instruction in four sustainability contexts (social, environmental, economic, technical) in an engineering design curriculum offers a strong foundation and framework upon which to build an engineering program that teaches students the necessary methodologies for designing for sustainability. Instruction in sustainability contexts described in this paper employs a developmental approach using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, which is a way to classify instructional activities or questions as they progress in cognitive difficulty. This paper describes a methodology and the results of a National Science Foundation-funded 3-year instructional grant that integrates sustainability instruction in four contexts into a six-course design curriculum using a developmental approach. Results indicate that students analyze sustainability case studies and move developmentally through six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation with increasing skill. As well, even though students were not instructed to include in their case study responses any other context than the assigned one, they included other contexts at increasing rates over the three stages of the study. This indicated an increasing ability to think using a systems theory perspective by including other related sustainability contexts.
11) Pappas, E. (2012). “A New Systems Approach to Sustainability: University Responsibility in Teaching Sustainability in Contexts.” Journal of Sustainability Education, Vol. 3, March 2012.
Abstract
A systems theory approach to sustainability in five contexts—social/cultural, economic, environmental, technical, and individual—is a realistic and useful approach to researching and teaching sustainability in the university. As a springboard for social change, the university needs to develop values-based sustainability content for classes across disciplines, and especially address the careful assessment and evaluation of both human and technical factors for solving sustainability problems.
12) Pappas, E. & Pappas, J. (2011) “A Dispositional Behavioral Approach to Teaching Cognitive Processes that Support Effective Thought and Action.” Innovative Higher Education, 36(5).
Abstract
This research documents the process and results of an approach to teaching university undergraduates intentional self-development skills designed to promote self-generated goals, routines, and lifestyle choices. These skills may provide effective behavioral foundations for developing metacognitive awareness, intentionality, and individual well-being. The results of six original behavioral interventions, implemented in two James Madison University courses, provide initial support for the effectiveness of these instructional methodologies.
Juried Conference Articles and Presentations
13) Pappas, E. (2019). Teaching Students that Values Matter: Values-based Behavioral Instruction in the Classroom. Integrity, Civility, Grace: Yesterday’s Virtues? 17th yearly conference of the Department of JMU Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Harrisonburg, Va., April.
Abstract
It might be easy to say that life-affirming values are the foundation for personality, community, or even global well-being…as well as integrity, civility, and grace. Despite our efforts to teach values and ethics in higher education, however, many of our students fail to internalize the instruction; that is, they may successfully complete ethics-related case studies “correctly,” but they often fail to internalize and practice the values needed to lead a life of integrity and humanistic balance. It is our assertion, however, that a conscious approach to life and a harmonious personality lead to the development and demonstration of humanistic values, integrity, and empathy. Well-balanced and ethical individuals are characterized by creating harmony, interconnection, and relatively high levels of self-awareness in their values, thoughts, behaviors, and actions as well as cultivating continued individual growth in their physical, emotional, social, philosophical, and intellectual abilities. This state of ethical being includes possessing a well-developed and demonstrated value system that acknowledges the importance and interconnectedness of all global biological and social systems, and our appropriate place within them. This paper describes how intentional change behavioral projects used by the author for over 20 years move students to become more balanced, conscious, and ethical individuals. These behavioral projects are designed to support the acquisition of values in the context of students’ daily lives. Projects focus on students understanding themselves and others, challenging and developing values, as well as understanding the nature of the human community (e.g. the commonalities all individuals share). The objectives of these projects are to have students experience a more harmonious state of being, be more adept at effective communications, gain a sense of increasing personal consciousness (including understanding one’s place in the global community), and learn how to change intentionally. More importantly, the many projects described here are the foundation for students understanding, developing, and assessing their own values, living with integrity…and more importantly, aligning their values and behaviors in everyday life.
14) Nagel, R.L., Barrella, E., Pappas, E.C., and Pappas, J. (2016). A Contextual Approach to Teaching Sustainability. Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Expo. New Orleans, La. June.
Abstract
The goal of this project is to research sustainability across contexts (environmental, economic, social, technical, and individual) in order to determine the best methodologies for teaching these contexts across academic disciplines (in our case: engineering, integrated science and technology, psychology, education, English, and communication studies). We are working to determine the most effective ways in which to assess these methodologies using behaviors as educational outcomes. This research has focused on creating cognitive dissonance by demonstrating to students the difference between their stated values and behaviors across sustainability contexts. Key studies have focused primarily on individual sustainability, but smaller catalyst studies have also focused on the self-knowledge that informs decision making and problem solving, cultivating mindfulness as an approach to sustainable living, understanding the self as a sustainable system, promoting sustainable student and reader behaviors in literature, and changes in metacognitive strategies and exam performance by attribution status (among others). The final deliverable will be the first iteration of a low-cost scalable and transferable global model for instructional integration that will allow students and faculty to engage in meaningful and intentional self-development of behaviors in specific sustainability content areas.
15) Nagel, R., Pappas, E. & Hazard, G. (2014). Understanding How Students’ Value the Behaviors of Individuals in Engineering Teams. ASEE National Conference, Indianapolis, Ind. June.
Abstract
Our engineering program incorporates a strong focus on engineering design, which begins during the students’ sophomore year with two sequential design courses—Engineering Design I taken in the fall semester and Engineering Design II taken during the spring semester. During this year-long sophomore design course sequence, students work to design and construct prototypes of human-powered vehicles for a client with cerebral palsy who lives in the local community. A client with cerebral palsy provides not only a real, client-based design experience, but also an opportunity requiring that the students develop a new customer persona differing from the “myself-as-the-customer” model; this process has proved challenging for many of the students. Ideally, by the end of the academic year, students should learn the importance of disassociating themselves from the customer as well as understand the ethical obligations associated with being an engineer. A critical component of this sophomore project is the development of identity and community
among a cohort of students. The sophomore design course sequence project is meant to expose students to an experience that transcends the classroom, and in the process, teach students that they are part of a larger complex system. Through this very-real project, students, as representatives of the University and the Department, see first-hand how their decisions and actions as engineers can (and likely will) influence individuals as members of society (i.e., they are a member of a system of systems). For many students, this project is their first realization of social systems and their future role as a member of a social system as a practicing engineer. This paper will provide the preliminary results of an NSF-sponsored research project to explore values-based methods for teaching sustainability in five contexts—individual, social, environmental, economic, and technical. This paper focuses on the individual and social contexts of sustainability related to working as a member of a team, and presents the results of a study on student values associated with behavior of individuals on a team.
16) Pappas, E. (2012). Individual Sustainability: Preliminary Research. Frontiers in Education 2012 National Conference. Oklahoma City, October.
(by request)
Abstract
All societal change begins with the individual. One cannot do for a community what one cannot do for one’s self. The topic of Individual Sustainability is a controversial one, as students often appear to be unable to align their demonstrated behaviors with their admirable values related to sustainability. Individual behavior creates the foundation for action in social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and potentially guides our ability to work with one another to make life-affirming decisions. In short, it is a matter of aligning our day-to-day behaviors with our well-stated values that will result in greater sustainable community action.
The general objective of this research is to help students align their behaviors with their values. This change is a necessary precursor to demonstrating sustainable community behavior. We believe that creating a “cognitive dissonance” between an individual’s values and behaviors tends to encourage individuals to balance more effectively the self-knowledge that motivates intentional personal development towards more sustainable behavior. While most students indicated they believed their behaviors consistently reflected their values, the students’ broad range of responses and survey responses revealed behaviors quite in conflict with their values.
© 2019 Eric Pappas, Jesse Pappas
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