Since 2013, the number of publications on flipped learning within chemistry have steadily increased. However, most of these studies focus on flipped course reforms within individual institutions, while the outcomes of any learning environment are dependent on how the environment is structured and the degree to which students interact with its elements. In this study, we apply a coordinated set of assessment practices to investigate similarities among flipped chemistry courses at five institutions in the United States. All courses in the study followed the two basic tenets of flipped learning: (1) foundational information was delivered through preclass materials (PCMs), and (2) the face-to-face (F2F) environment applied or extended the content through active learning. Each F2F environment was characterized using video recordings analyzed with the Classroom Observation Protocol in Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) tool. Each individual course showed consistent use of F2F time across each session recording; however, there were significant differences in the predominant student behaviors between courses. Student behavior in two of the courses (Courses Four and Five) was dominated by work in small-groups on problem-solving worksheets, in contrast to another course (Course One) where responding to whole-class questioning posed by the instructor dominated students’ behaviors. While behaviors in the two remaining courses (Courses Two and Three) included a mix of responding to clicker and whole-class questions, one of them (Course Three) also included large episodes of students simply listening during instructor presentation of material. A midsemester survey was administered in each course to characterize students’ interactions with, and perceptions of, the PCMs. Of particular note, student self-reports of the number of videos viewed and the timing of viewing trended with the amount of peer-to-peer interaction during F2F sessions. That is, students in courses with more consistent groupwork reported watching more of the video content and doing so before the F2F session. These results demonstrate that flipped classrooms can take many forms and suggest that F2F structure may create non-grade-based incentives for PCM utilization.
The Cronbach's alpha (α) statistic is regularly reported in science education studies. However, recent reviews have noted that it is not well-understood. Therefore, this commentary provides additional clarity regarding the language used when describing and interpreting alpha and other estimates of reliability.
Student engagement is an important consideration when incorporating active learning activities into a classroom. To facilitate the large-scale assessment of students' engagement in activities, a survey measure must first be developed and evaluated. Therefore, the goal of this study was to create a self-report measure of student engagement for use with active learning activities in general chemistry classes. The Activity Engagement Survey (AcES) was modified from an existing survey of engagement of middle and high school science students that contained behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement items. Multiple rounds of response process interviews and factor analyses were used to modify the measure and provide evidence of validity for the data collected. The results provided support for the presence of a bifactor model, where an overall general engagement factor and the individual dimensions of engagement were simultaneously modeled. Additionally, support was found for combining behavioral and cognitive components into a single factor due to a large overlap in students' perceptions between the constructs.
Although active learning strategies are being incorporated into many highereducation STEM courses, not all students benefit from these activities to the same extent. As these types of activities are designed to engage students in their learning, differences in student engagement may explain some of the differences in learning outcomes. However, before student engagement in active learning activities can be meaningfully measured using a selfreport survey, it is important to evaluate if students perceive engagement similarly to the literature definitions on which these measures are based. Therefore, this study sought to explore students' perceptions of the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional dimensions of engagement with respect to specific worksheet activities incorporated into a general chemistry course. This was completed through the use of open-ended written responses and interviews. Results indicated that although students generally perceived behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement similarly to the literature definitions of these dimensions, students tended to conflate many ideas of behavioral and cognitive engagement. Additionally, social themes were also discovered to be threaded throughout student responses to the three dimensions of engagement, suggesting students also perceived the presence of a social engagement dimension when considering engagement at the activity level.
Investigating student engagement in active learning activities could provide valuable insight into variations of student learning outcomes when active learning is included in a course. This study sought to explore students' engagement in relation to active learning activities incorporated in a general chemistry lecture course using the Activity Engagement Survey (AcES). The AcES can be used to simultaneously assess students' overall engagement, as well as dimensions above and beyond overall engagement including their combined behavioral/cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and social engagement. As students' engagement may be influenced by aspects related to the learning environment and context, differences in engagement were explored between students who chose to work on active learning activities with others and those that chose to work independently, as well as between activities completed in a remote environment versus an in-person environment. Results indicated that students who worked with others had significantly higher behavioral/cognitive and overall engagement than those who worked by themselves. Comparisons of students' engagement between the two types of learning environments, however, could not be justified due to insufficient evidence to support consequential validity. As higher student engagement in a course has been found to lead to improved student learning outcomes, the relation between students' engagement in the activities and students' understanding was assessed through multiple linear regression. Results indicated that students who were more behaviorally/cognitively engaged in an activity scored higher on exam items related to the content covered on the activity; emotional and social engagement were not found to be significant predictors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.