Multiyear, multi-instructor evaluation of a large-class interactive-engagement curriculum

Interactive-engagement (IE) techniques consistently enhance conceptual learning gains relative to traditional-lecture courses, but attitudinal gains typically emerge only in small, inquiry-based curricula. The current study evaluated whether a “scalable IE” curriculum—a curriculum used in a large course ($\sim 130$ students per section) and likely adoptable by a wide range of physics departments—could produce significant attitudinal benefits relative to a traditional-lecture curriculum. This study included data across three years, 10 instructors, over 30 sections, and over 1100 students, and our analytic strategy allowed us to isolate the effects that were due to the curriculum itself rather than other potential factors such as instructor differences or preexisting differences among students. Results revealed that our Active-Physics curriculum, which is based on Moore’s Six Ideas That Shaped Physics, produced significant attitudinal and conceptual-learning benefits relative to our traditional-lecture physics curriculum. Further, the Active-Physics curriculum, for the most part, benefitted males and females equally, and relative to the Fall semester alone, the benefits of Active Physics became more robust when viewed across the entire two-semester sequence of introductory physics. Our data highlight that some (though not all) of the attitudinal benefits of small, inquiry-based courses may be achievable in larger course with scalable IE curricula that can potentially reach a large proportion of introductory physics students.

Figure 1

Normalized change on the FCI across the Fall semester for students in Active Physics and traditional-lecture physics. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. $*(p<0.05)$ for instruction-type main effect in regression analyses. Significance tests were not conducted separately within each gender because the gender $\times$ instruction-type effect was not significant.

Figure 2

CLASS Shifts from pre-Fall to post-Fall for students in Active Physics and traditional-lecture physics. $*(p<0.05)$ for instruction-type main effects in regression analyses. LA, Learning Approach; SA, Solving Approach; PI, Personal Interest; RC, Real-World Connection; PSG, Problem Solving–General; PSC, Problem Solving–Confidence; PSS, Problem Solving Sophistication; SME, Sense Making/Effort; CU, Conceptual Understanding; ACU. Applied Conceptual Understanding.

Figure 3

CLASS shifts from pre-Fall to post-Fall for (a) males and (b) females in Active Physics and traditional-lecture physics. Significance tests were conducted separately within each gender only for PI, because of a significant gender $\times$ instruction-type interaction effect. The instruction-type effect for PI was significant ($p<0.05$) for females (indicated by *) but not for males.

Figure 4

Normalized change on the BEMA across the Spring semester for students in Active Physics and traditional-lecture physics. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. Significance tests were not conducted separately within each gender because the gender $\times$ instruction-type interaction effect was not significant.

Figure 5

CLASS shifts from pre-Fall to post-Spring for students in Active Physics and traditional-lecture physics. $*(p<0.05)$ for instruction-type main effects in regression.

Figure 6

CLASS shifts from pre-Fall to post-Spring for (a) males and (b) females. Significance tests were not conducted separately within each gender because no gender $\times$ instruction-type interaction effects were significant in the whole-year analyses.