Exploring the context of change: Understanding the kinetics of a studio physics implementation effort

The SCALE-UP studio physics class involves the physical redesign of a classroom to encourage more collaborative interactions and student-centered teaching, an approach shown to increase student learning on several different measures. However, research into the contextual issues involved in implementing a studio course using the SCALE-UP model remains limited. The research presented here explores the impact of situational factors on the implementation and maintenance of a research-based instructional innovation in a large research university. The specific focus of this investigation was the development and implementation of a studio version of an introductory physics course sequence at a large research university in the southeast United States using the SCALE-UP model. Interview, observation, and artifact data (including documents and Email conversations), collected over a period of two years, were analyzed. Using the Teacher Centered Systemic Reform framework, the data were analyzed to develop themes describing forces that both encouraged and restricted the growth of this studio course. Influential forces operated at the classroom, department, university, and broad cultural levels. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the specific nature of innovations implemented and their alignment with desired learning goals and outcomes. The importance of faculty collegiality emerges as a critical departmental force, as does administrative intervention at the department and university level. Broader, societal conversations related to improving undergraduate science education also provided important contextual framing for the change effort studied. The findings highlight important factors to contemplate when undertaking similar change efforts and recommendations from this study are offered for consideration.

Figure 1

The Teacher Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) framework [8].

Figure 2

Kinetics of the studio course effort: The developmental trajectory of the studio physics program is represented by this line graph plotting the change in size of the program over the course of several years.

Figure 3

Free body diagram for stage 1: Development of the studio physics program (Cl—classroom; D—department; U—university; C—culture).

Figure 4

Free body diagram for stage 2: Expansion of the studio physics program (Cl—classroom; D—department; U—university; C—culture).

Figure 5

Free body diagram for stage 3: Stabilization of the studio physics program (Cl—classroom; D—department; U—university; C—culture).

Figure 6

Free body diagram for predicted forces in stage 4: Diffusion of the studio physics program (Cl—classroom; D—department; U—university; C—culture).

Figure 7

Free body diagram summarizing the external forces influencing the studio physics program (Cl—classroom; D—department; U—university; C—culture).