Student: Brad Sehring
Mentor: Stu Silverberg, PhD

Robert Beichner (NC State University)

Student Centered Activities for Large
Enrollment University Physics

Barriers to studying physics in a traditional
large lecture setting
--- little contact with instructor

Purpose: provide an interactive,
technological learning environment that
encourages collaboration among students.

SCALE-UP – used in150 higher education
institutions in US.

Classes: 20-117 students (Ideal for
classes of 36 or less).

Adapted for a variety of disciplines.

Prepare students to be leaders through
the development of team building skills
and increases learning of course content.

Class is spent working together and
sharing what each other has learned.

North Carolina State University has data
comparing 16,000 traditional and SCALEUP students.

Mechanics Exam: SCALE-UP (mean
73.1) vs. Traditional (mean 61.7)

Class Attendance: SCALE-UP (90.3% )
vs. Traditional (74.3%)
 SCALE-UP
is a SUCCESS!!
Ability to solve problems is improved
 Conceptual Understanding is increased
 Attitudes are better
 Failure rates are drastically reduced
 Students do better in later courses


As part of the Achieving The Dream (ATD) initiative,
WCCC has instituted a strategy in 13 courses to
administer common competency exams to assess
performance on common learning outcomes.

Since 2013 : 5 out of 13 classes taught in WCCC’s
SCALE-UP classroom include the following “gatekeeper
courses”





BIOLOGY : Anatomy & Physiology
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
COLLEGE WRITING
PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT (Academic Preparedness
Course)
3.5
BIO 171
PSY 160
ENG 161
SOC 155 PDV 160
2.942.99
3
2.5
2
2.32
2.23
2.38
2.23
2.47
2.37
Traditional
SCALE-UP
1.94
1.62
1.5
1
1
2
3
4
5

Administered Pilot Survey in General Psychology

3 SCALE-UP classrooms at WCCC, but PSY 160 is the only course currently taught in both
a traditional and SCALE-UP classroom by the same instructor.

Assessed student engagement and satisfaction using a new instrument (10 point scale Strongly disagree to strongly agree).
Key Questions

The use of technology is helpful in learning the concepts discussed in class?

Working in groups assists with learning course materials?

I find it easy to contribute in class?

The classroom has prepared me for exams?
Data from survey will be used to help increase SCALE-UP success among other
courses.
Survey item
SCALE-UP
Technology helpful
7.95

Traditional
7.77
Working in groups
7.45
7.19
Easy to contribute
7.55
6.97
Prepared for exams
7.70
7.90**
** none of the chi-square analyses were significant

Student ratings were higher for SCALE-UP vs.
traditional for all items except exam
preparedness item.

Perhaps the lack of GPA benefits in Humanities
and Social Science courses can be explained by
SCALE-UP technology not preparing students
for exams as well as Anatomy & Physiology.




Expand the study by administering the survey to
students in all 5 gatekeeper courses.
Content validation of the instrument with instructors
who are using the technology and those who are not
Look at correlations between student responses to
survey items and individual student grades in the
course and scores on a common learning outcomes
assessment.
Propose a pretest-posttest design to look at how
critical thinking and problem solving abilities change
as a result of taking a SCALE-UP course

Questions ?