Joint Spring 2011 Meeting of the New England Sections of the APS and the AAPT
Volume 56, Number 2
Friday–Saturday, April 8–9, 2011;
Lowell, Massachusetts
Session G1: Undergraduate Education
9:15 AM–10:00 AM,
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Olney Science Center
Room: 0-150
Chair: Partha Chowdhury, UMass Lowell
Abstract ID: BAPS.2011.NES.G1.1
Abstract: G1.00001 : The Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project
9:15 AM–10:00 AM
Preview Abstract
Author:
Robert J. Beichner
(North Carolina State University )
How do you keep a classroom of 100 undergraduates actively
learning? Can students practice communication and teamwork skills
in a large class? How do you boost the performance of
underrepresented groups? The Student-Centered Active Learning
Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project has
addressed these concerns. Because of their inclusion in a leading
introductory physics textbook, project materials are used by more
than 1/3 of all science, math, and engineering majors nationwide.
The room design and pedagogy have been adopted at more than 100
leading institutions across the country. Physics, chemistry,
math, astronomy, biology, engineering, earth sciences, and even
literature classes are currently being taught this way.
Educational research indicates that students should collaborate
on interesting tasks and be deeply involved with the material
they are studying. We promote active learning in a redesigned
classroom for 100 students or more. (Of course, smaller classes
can also benefit.) Class time is spent primarily on
``tangibles'' and ``ponderables''--hands-on activities,
simulations, and interesting questions. Nine students sit in
three teams at round tables. Instructors circulate and engage in
Socratic dialogues. The setting looks like a banquet hall, with
lively interactions nearly all the time.
Hundreds of hours of classroom video and audio recordings,
transcripts of numerous interviews and focus groups, data from
conceptual learning assessments (using widely-recognized
instruments in a pretest/posttest protocol), and collected
portfolios of student work are part of our rigorous assessment
effort. Our findings (based on data from over 16,000 students
collected over five years as well as replications at adopting
sites) can be summarized as the following:
1) Female failure rate is 1/5 of previous levels, even though
more is demanded of students. 2) Minority failure rate is 1/4
that seen in traditionally taught courses. 3) At-risk students
are more successful in later engineering courses. 4) Top students
gain the most, although students at all levels benefit. 5)
Conceptual learning and problem solving are significantly
improved, with same content coverage. In this talk I will discuss
the need for reform, the SCALE-UP classroom environment, and
examine the findings of studies of learning.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2011.NES.G1.1