Flipping the Classroom - Do Student Learning Gains and Perceptions Vary Based on Gender?

Abstract

This work expands previous work (Doyle and Nilsson, 2016) on the impact that pedagogical changes, including a hybrid flipped classroom, have on student engagement and retention of material in engineering statics. During two academic years (2015-2016 and 2017-2018), data were collected from eight total engineering statics sessions. The data set includes prerequisite grades, final statics grades, scores from pre-and post-statics concept inventory and a post-course survey administered via google forms. The additional data collected during 2017-2018 provides a more robust data set to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of the pedagogical changes. The data show underrepresented minorities (females) are more engaged in the material with the hybrid flipped classroom, and more importantly, make greater gains in knowledge compared to their male counterparts. Across all data, female students concept inventory scores show greater gains from pre-to post-course. Female students (n = 36) increase concept inventory score by 138% compared to an increase of 77% by male classmates (n = 90). The value of active pedagogies was reinforced as 58% of all students stated that this course 'increased' or 'greatly increased' their interest in engineering with a greater percentage of females indicated the course 'greatly increased' their interest in engineering. Results from this study are of particular interest as engineering programs strive to retain all students, especially underrepresented minorities, and to increase diversity and inclusion in engineering. An unexpected result of this work was the reinforcement of the need for targeted faculty development in the implementation of activelearning methodologies to insure the method has the intended effect on student learning and engagement.

Perceptions of the Engineering Curricula from Women and LGBTQIA+ Students

“…The predominant normative marker of science and scientists in the U.S. has historically and continues to be based on White cisgender male perspectives [1]- [7]. Not surprisingly, this homogenous and heterogenous perspective leads to pedagogical practices in which minoritized students underperform compared to when innovative pedagogical models are used, such as flipped classrooms [8], [9]. This long-standing conceptualization of science and scientists also results in an engineering curriculum that deems "issues of communication, justice, politics, social consciousness, and identity" as "irrelevant" [10, p. 11].…”