WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: The Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) Project

SPEAKER: Professor Robert J. Beichner ,

TIME: Wednesday February 10, 2016 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 Olin Physical Laboratory

How do you keep a classroom of 100 undergraduates actively learning? Can students practice communication and teamwork skills regardless of class size? How do you boost the performance of underrepresented groups? The Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) Project has addressed these concerns. Physics, chemistry, math, biology, engineering, business, nursing, and even literature classes are being taught this way, at more than 250 institutions nationwide.

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.) Classtime is spent primarily on "tangibles" and "ponderables"--hands-on activities, simulations, and interesting questions. There are also hypothesis-driven labs. 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.

We have data comparing 16,000+ students. Our findings can be summarized as the following:

Ability to solve problems is improved

Conceptual understanding is increased

Attitudes are improved

Failure rates are drastically reduced, especially for women and minorities

Performance in later courses is enhanced

In this talk I will discuss the classroom environment, describe some of the activities, and review the findings of studies of learning in various SCALE-UP settings.