Faculty Development and Patterns of Student Grouping in Flipped Classrooms Enabled by Personal Instrumentation

摘要

This paper presents new and extended research on the impact of integrated hand-held mobile technology used in support of experiment centric learning within flipped engineering classrooms. The settings reflect courses serving two levels of students and content (1st year students taking their first engineering course and 2nd - 4th year STEM majors from outside of ECE) who are learning circuit content. The key support for hand-held learning was the Analog Discovery Board (ADB); the major characteristics of the flipped classroom pedagogy were instructor prepared videos and reading materials used by students outside the classroom and classroom activities to support a decreased use of instructor lecture with an increase in student experimentation under instructor guidance. Variables of interest include examination of student and faculty prerequisites of learning, immediate self-reported learning, and potential long-term transferable outcomes. Observed and faculty reported changes in instructional practices are used to develop patterns of instructor change in pedagogy and supports needed to change instructional practices. The overall purpose of the paper is to present 1) patterns of faculty refinement of the pedagogy, 2) resulting changes in student outcomes; 3) four patterns of student group-learning processes evolving from the use of experiential learning in flipped classrooms; and 4) a discussion of how flipped classroom pedagogy and hands-on experimental practice promotes the hierarchy of student learning in groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of need for further research on faculty developmental patterns, how they are impacted by varied supports, and the need for more research on the role of student grouping and related outcomes.