Active Learning Classroom Use in College-Level Physics: The Impact of Technology Design and Adaptive Orchestration

• In Event: Space and Technologies for Learning in Schools, Museums, and Workplaces: Recent Approaches in Design-Based Research

Abstract

Research Objectives

The objective of this current study is to investigate how the design of an active learning classroom that includes student-dedicated interactive whiteboards (SDIW) can be designed to support collaborative processes. Additionally, to identify design factors that promote or constrain student collaboration and learning.

Background

In the last decade there has been increasing interest in building technology-rich collaborative learning environments that complement constructivist and social constructivist educational paradigms. Examples include the SCALE-UP project at North Carolina State University (Beichner, Saul, Abbott, Morse, Deardorff, Allain, Bonham, Dancy, & Risley, 2007) and the TEAL project at MIT (Dori & Belcher, 2004). Such spaces are generically referred to as active learning classrooms (ALCs). In such spaces pod-like seating arrangements where students face each other instead of the teacher replace traditional rows of front-facing desks. Centralized instructor podiums (or no podium) that de-emphasize teacher authority replace the standard teacher furnishings at the head or front of the room. And, technology that facilitates collaboration and connectivity replaces “chalk and talk” – i.e., the traditional modes of classroom interactions. One of the new technologies considered for ALCs is the interactive whiteboard, a multi-user device with affordances for engaging students in joint activity. In the process of using such shared technology there is the potential of supporting collaborative learning through the creation of joint problem spaces (Roschelle & Teasley, 1995).
Promoting learning in ALCs, however, includes attending to new ways of thinking about teaching and learning (authors). Additionally, designing instruction for new learning environments requires special attention to the flow of activities, what is referred to as “orchestration” (Dillenbourg & Fischer, 2007).

Methods and Data analysis

This study is a design-experiment (Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer & Schauble, 2003). The focal setting was an ALC that features six pods of five-six students, each with its own student-dedicated interactive whiteboard (SDIW) located at one end of specially designed tables. Participants were students enrolled in a college-level introductory physics course taught exclusively in this ALC by an instructor experienced in active learning pedagogy.
The data corpus includes video recordings and field notes documenting the use of this new designed space and its technology, as well as student interviews. A standardized pre-post test was used to assess concept learning – i.e., the Force Concept Inventory (FCI; Hestenes, Wells & Swackhamer, 1992). Interactional methods were used to analyse the video data.

Findings

Findings include the documentation of co-regulatory and group-regulatory processes among students as a result of working in this ALC and using the SDIW. Additionally, there was development of adaptive orchestration moves by the teacher including: the redesign of the pedagogical activities to take advantage of the physical space, the design of specific computer-supported activities to take advantage of the interactive and multi-user affordances of the SDIW. Together these helped to support sustained collaboration by students as groups and as a class. Recommendations for future design decisions will be discussed.

Authors

• Elizabeth S. Charles, Dawson College

• Chris Whittaker, Dawson College

• Nathaniel Lasry, Harvard University