Adding Necessary Rigor to Engineering Pedagogical Change: Instructional Innovation Versus Research-Informed Counter-Resistance

In this study, we explore the teaching of an acclaimed engineering education professor and his struggles to transform his classroom in light of the National Academy of Engineering standards. We argue that pedagogical changes, particularly in contexts where students have been highly successful, may be preemptively abandoned in response to students’ floundering. We offer three instances in which direct counterresistance to students’ responses to pedagogical innovation allowed this expert instructor to achieve his long-term goal of students’ higherlevel thinking. Implications for future teaching and research are discussed.