Abstract
Increasingly, Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) are being designed and built by higher education institutions to support instructors in adopting and implementing active learning pedagogies. In this study, we explore how instructors perceive changes in their teaching after teaching in ALCs. Our study focuses on the perceptions of faculty members who have completed a year-long professional development around teaching in ALCs. We conduct place-based interviews with nine such faculty members to examine their perceptions of their changing pedagogies of specific ALCs. Using thematic analysis, we categorized faculty’s perceptions of the affordances of ALCs for their teaching and student learning into three major themes: (1) ALCs afford visibility and instructor presence, (2) ALCs afford better feedback and apprenticeship, and (3) ALCs afford intimate conversations and student dialogue. Finally, we draw on data from the interviews to explicate each theme in turn before discussing commonalities and tensions among the themes. These three themes present an entry point for professional development designers, instructors, and other institutional stakeholders to understand how instructors orient active learning pedagogues to learning spaces.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors, [KC, SU, TB], upon reasonable request.
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K.C., S.U., and T.B. conceived of the presented idea. K.C. performed interviews of participants and transcribing of interviews. K.C., S.U., and T.B. analyzed the data. K.C., S.U., and T.B. wrote the article.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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We, Keeley Copridge, Suraj Uttamchandani, Ph.D., and Tracey Birdwell Ph.D., give consent for our article, Faculty Reflections of Pedagogical Transformation in Active Learning Classrooms, to be published in Innovative Higher Education.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding authors [KC, SU, TB]. The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise research participant consent.
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Copridge, K.W., Uttamchandani, S. & Birdwell, T. Faculty Reflections of Pedagogical Transformation in Active Learning Classrooms. Innov High Educ 46, 205–221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09544-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09544-y