Facilitators and outcomes of STEM-education groups working toward disciplinary integration

There is a growing societal recognition of the need for transdisciplinary scholarly collaboration which can enhance undergraduate physics, science, and engineering education. A regional conference/network with 100 university education researchers in physics and other STEM fields was formed to address three themes (problemsolving, computational thinking, and equity) with multiple goals including to strive for transdisciplinary publications. As part of an ongoing participant observation study, phone interviews were conducted 3-4 months later. One year later, publications that were completed as a result of the conference were analyzed for their disciplinary integration. The papers showed evidence of interdispliciplanry collaboration but transdiciplinary collaboration proved too difficult to achieve. Multiple factors such as certain facilitating conditions (including lack of prior shared working history, intrapersonal and interpersonal expectations, and sufficient time) may explain why transdisciplinary publications were not developed