Assessing Principled Innovation ™
Project supports further analysis of institutional cultural transformation through Principled Innovation
Official grant name
Assessing Principled Innovation as an Action-Oriented Approach to Character FormationAward amount
$1674565Principal investigator
Nicole ThompsonAward start date
08/01/2022Award end date
07/31/2025Originating sponsor
John Templeton FoundationThe challenge
Can the culture of an institution transform to embody a fundamental focus on character?
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University has developed the Principled Innovation ™ framework as a way to support innovation in education while creating positive change for humanity. At the core of the framework are Moral, Civic, Intellectual and Performance character assets demonstrated and developed through eight practices implemented as an approach to teaching, culture and community. There is a need to assess more clearly the effect of the framework as an approach to the infusion of character assets across all college systems and enacted in teacher preparation through communities of practice.
The approach
“Assessing Principled Innovation as an Action-Oriented Approach to Character Formation” builds on previous research-based work on Principled Innovation by enabling researchers to gain insight into how the character assets are cultivated through practicing Principled Innovation in communities of practice. Through this project, led by Nicole Thompson of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, the college will engage eight communities of practices, each representing a common interest and group goals, of about 75 MLFTC faculty and staff. Seven of the communities will be organized by institutional contexts with five centering on operational, curricular or administrative concerns and two focused on the broader faculty constituency. A meta community of practice will be composed of leaders from the other communities of practice and the director of Principled Innovation. The meta community of practice will be an organizational “hub” for cross-pollinating character-centered innovation.
A research-based pathways model and evaluation plan has been developed to assess the reach and impact of Principled Innovation. This will be instrumental while faculty and staff engage the communities of practice, and work with an external evaluation team from Montclair State University (MSU) led by Primary Investigator Jennifer Urban, to implement the evaluation plan and disseminate findings. By implementing a robust evaluation plan, MLFTC and MSU researchers will be able to analyze the impact of Principled Innovation on the systems that support educators and students, enhance the college’s education model and benefit other universities, partners and pre-K–12 schools while contributing to the field of education and institutional cultures.