A Departmental Action Team (DAT) is a working group of four to eight faculty, staff, and students created by the department (and guided by an external facilitator from TLL) to achieve the following goals:
- Create sustainable change around a broad-scale issue related to undergraduate education, with the focal issue developed collaboratively with input from relevant departmental stakeholders.
- Collect multiple forms of evidence to inform decision-making about the focal issue.
- Recognize and adapt departmental structures and culture to achieve positive and meaningful change in undergraduate education.
- Explicitly attend to long-term sustainability when making changes in the department.
A core feature of the DAT is that the working group (and other relevant stakeholders) collaboratively develop the focus of the project to improve undergraduate education. Examples include
Changes to the curriculum (e.g., restructuring a course sequence).
Pedagogy (e.g., increasing collaborative learning or broadening student participation in class)
Culture (e.g., building a sense of belonging among students).
Staff in the TLL will bring their expertise in educational research, evidence-based teaching, and organizational change to facilitate working groups and create an environment where DAT participants are likely to succeed.
DATs support their participants not only in making meaningful, positive change in their department, but also in developing their capacity to sustain the project and continue leading change in the future. Drs. Ruthann Thomas and Raechel Soicher lead this initiative. Reach out to tll-dat@mit.edu with any questions.