Exploring Flipped Classroom Instruction in Calculus III

In an undergraduate Calculus III class, we explore the effect of “flipping” the instructional delivery of content on both student performance and student perceptions. Two instructors collaborated to determine daily lecture notes, assigned the same homework problems, and gave identical exams; however, compared to a more traditional instructional approach, the flipped instructor utilized videos to communicate more procedural course content to students out-of-class, with time in-class spent on more conceptual activities and homework problems. Findings from two semesters indicate similar performance on more procedural problems and small to moderate gains for the flipped students (N = 74) over their traditional counterparts (N = 77) on more conceptual exam problems. However, student perceptions remain mixed, with flipped students reporting increased communication during class but traditional students perceiving more effective use of class time, despite the gains in performance for flipped students.     

The philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of Active Learning in Engineering Education

ABSTRACT

In this paper the authors draw on three sequential keynote addresses that they gave at Active Learning in Engineering Education (ALE) workshops in Copenhagen (2012), Caxias do Sol (2014) and San Sebastian (2015). Active Learning in Engineering Education is an informal international network of engineering educators dedicated to improving engineering education through active learning (http://www.ale-net.org/). The paper reiterates themes from those keynotes, namely, the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of Active Learning in Engineering Education, the scholarly questions that inspire engineering educators to go on improving their practice and exemplary models designed to activate the learning of engineering students. This paper aims to uncover the bedrock of established educational philosophies and theories that define and support active learning. The paper does not claim to present any new or innovative educational theory. There is already a surfeit of them. Rather, the aim is to assist Engineering Educators who wish to research how they can best activate the learning of their students by providing a readable, reasonable and solid underpinning for best practice in this field.     

KEY INFORMANTS' PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHER LEARNING IN SCOTLAND

ABSTRACT:   This article outlines the policy context for teachers' learning and continuing professional development in Scotland and considers this in relation to the perspectives of key informants gained through interview. The analysis draws on a triple-lens conceptual framework and points to some interesting contradictions between the policy text and the expressed aspirations of the interviewees. Current policy and the associated structural arrangements are viewed as broadly positive, but interviewees express concerns that an unintended emphasis on contractual arrangements might inhibit the more transformative elements of professional learning.     

Combined fluency and cognitive strategies instruction improves mathematics achievement in early elementary school

One hundred and seventy-eight second grade students from two states (Georgia and Massachusetts) participated in an experiment in which they were randomly assigned to either (1) a computer program designed to increase fluency in addition and subtraction, (2) a program designed to improve cognitive strategy use for addition and subtraction, (3) a program that combined the fluency and cognitive strategy instruction programs or (4) a control condition. The intervention consisted of 40 half-hour sessions (2 sessions per week for 20 weeks). Prior to the intervention, and immediately following the intervention, the participants were tested on fluency, cognitive strategy use, and mathematics achievement. ANCOVAs indicated that children in the combined fluency and cognitive strategy use condition significantly improved their mathematics achievement in comparison to the control group. When we examined the impact of the intervention as a function of gender, boys appeared to benefit from the intervention, but girls did not.     

Stories of family in working-class graduates’ early careers

How do young graduates view the role of immediate families in influencing/supporting them as they start their working lives and how do those reflections affect how they think of themselves as graduates? Social, political and economic changes have led to many young people being dependent on family for longer, but how does this play out in their reflections? This article addresses these questions by reporting upon findings from qualitative research with 14 young people from working-class backgrounds, who were part of a larger study of recent graduates. Figured Worlds theory illuminates data, with a consideration of the role that family plays in the ‘space of authoring’ and understanding of ‘positionality’. Findings capture vivid stories of the enabling but also limiting role of family. In our analysis of data, we borrow the words ‘salience’ from Holland and her co-authors and ‘distinction’ from Bourdieu, which help capture different depictions of family. Both articulations of ‘salience’ and a search for ‘distinction’ emerge in how graduates’ stories respond to family. We argue for a greater appreciation of the differing family resources of working-class graduates, and reject an emphasis on what they may lack, compared to their peers, which has tended to be the case in some media and policy commentary. There are implications for educators to foster student reflexivity about family sensitively, and to be aware of how family backgrounds may influence graduate career paths and students’ awareness of wider inequalities.     

Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education

The study reported here is seeking to gain enhanced understandings of the acquisition and development of core and generic skills in higher education and employment against a backcloth of continued pressure for their effective delivery from employers, government departments, and those responsible for the management and funding of higher education. This pressure appears to have had little impact so far, in part because of tutors' scepticism of the message, the messenger and its vocabulary, and in part because the skills demanded lack clarity, consistency and a recognisable theoretical base. Any empirical attempt to acquire enhanced understandings of practice thus requires the conceptualisation and development of models of generic skills and of course provision. These models are presented together with evidence of their validity, including exemplars of the patterns of course provision identified.