Evaluating students' perceptions of active learning pedagogies. Helen Kay (LEAD), Tim Parker (ACES), Dave Greenfield (ACES), Oliver Lewis (ACES) & Anne Nortcliffe (ACES) Introduce our selves - Tim to lead the introduction

Evaluating students' perceptions of active learning pedagogies. In this presentation we are going to consider the implementation and evaluation of 'Scale-up' including: Why 'Scale-up' was adopted; What 'Scale-up' is; How 'Scale-up' worked in practice; What the students said about 'Scale-up'; What were the students perceptions of active learning; Was there any correlation with performance. Tim to introduce: SCALE UP adopted to develop teaching from didactic delivery to flipped lectures and TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) type active learning approaches that promote student engagement. SCALE UP - “Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies.” originally developed by Robert Beichner Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Basic principles (Beichner et al 2007). : An active mode of learning where students learn through solving problems, sharing ideas, giving and receiving feedback, and teaching each other. Attempts to dissolved barriers between theory and practice by improving students’ conceptual understanding more effectively than separate lectures and seminars/labs. Physical classroom environment can work in tandem with active learning pedagogies to promote engagement and deep learning: Round tables of 9 students working in 3s, sharing laptops and work sharing facility to display student work with wider class. SCALE-UP, lectures are replaced by problem-solving and enquiry-based activities carried out in strategically-assigned groups. Attempts to foster collaborative learning, Physical aspects are supported by a threefold ‘upside-down pedagogy’ comprising: ‘Backwards design’—the curriculum is designed ‘backwards’ from the learning outcomes; ‘Students as teachers’; and 'Flipped learning', where ‘content’ may be encountered outside class and sessions are devoted to applying ideas. The shift away from lectures frees up class time for students to focus on difficult aspects of the material, to work at their own pace, and to receive on-the-spot feedback on their work from peers and the tutor. Generally student feedback surprisingly positive. Prince and Others who suggest resistance to active learning.

Why Scale-up for Engineering Undergraduates? Didactic teaching doesn't promote the development of problem-solving skills; Students may lack key employability skills; Scale-up allows the inclusion of hands-on activities, problem-based scenarios and independent research in teaching and learning sessions. Oliver Engineering teaching tends to be didactic - focus on lecturer imparting knowledge. This approach does not equip graduates with the ability to apply knowledge in different scenarios and solve industrial problems. Scale-up has permitted the development of learning experiences in which students engage in hands-on activities, scenario-based problem solving, online research and group work - all essential skills for graduate engineers. Students work in groups of 3, tables of 9 or even class discussion, promoting peer support, a sense of learning community and shared development.

Scale-up in action! Oliver Video

Module Learning Outcomes Level 4 Aerospace Materials and Manufacturing 1. To develop and apply an understanding of engineering materials in respect to material structure and how manufacture processes can change the structure and properties of materials. 2. To develop and apply an understanding of the processing routes appropriate to specific materials and have the ability to make an informed choice of manufacturing processes with respect to capabilities and the cost build-up of those processes. 3 To apply knowledge of materials and manufacturing appropriately to applications relevant to the aerospace industry in accordance with industry standards and regulations Oliver

Module Learning Outcomes Level 5 Professional Practice 1. Develop higher levels of professional and ethical conduct with respect to engineering organisations and the general public domestically and internationally. 2. Promote better understanding of role of engineers in business and sustainable development. 3. Develop comprehension of the role that engineering plays at strategic and operational level in support of an organisation. 4. To identify, develop and reflect on your personal, professional skills, future employability and career planning. Tim Interesting mix of good and bad. Note this was taken from 'other comments' made in questionnaire and have been corrected for negative association.

How we set about implementing & evaluating Scale-up A collaboration between the Department of Engineering and Maths and LEAD This involved and continues to involve: teaching enhancement grant (ACES); pedagogic support on implementation; support to develop the team's skills and confidence in PedRes; literature review; the creation of a questionnaire based on previous research & deployment at the end of S2 (240 students); analysis of quantitative and qualitative data..... Tim: Anne and I both applied separately for TEG funding to run research projects on the use of SCALE-UP to evaluate impact on the engagement of students in our respective modules. Ethically we could not complete the research as we were involved in delivery so we enlisted assistance from the LEAD team and both Andrew Middleton and Hellen Kay have been hugely supportive of the project. We arranged, recruited and managed student researches to work with Helen Kay to complete the survey we developed as a group. This was based on previous pedagogic/andragogic research in this area. Methodologically we needed to use both qualitative and quantitative research methods to complete the research: I will do a short bit on the qualitative and then Helen will outline the initial results of the quantitative aspects.

What student said! Question - Use three (3) words or phrases to describe your reaction to the active learning in the scale-up classes. Tim: This came from a question asking the students to describe their experience of active learning: Just to be clear we checked and corrected for use of antonyms such as un-interesting or not interesting etc. Clearly a mixed picture with lots of positive but some negative (as we would expect).

Students' 'value and positivity' (green) towards active learning and their 'participation' (orange). mean scores mean scores Helen Graph when the scores for questions a, d, e, g and m are reversed. The orange bars are the participation questions and the green the positivity and values questions. Factor analysis (PCA) used to identify the 'factors / components. Nguyen identified 3 components!

Students' 'value and positivity' towards active learning Helen

Students' experience of tutors' 'active learning' teaching/facilitation strategies Helen h. students struggled to get through the material prepared - the teams needed to reflect and reduce the content..... f. facilitation

Students' views on - What is learning? Helen

Development of skills and capabilities To what extent do you think the scale-up sessions have helped you to improve your ability to:

Students' assessment performance The correlations between the overall assessment mark and the factors identified are weak and only contribute a small amount of the total variance......

Summary Overall SCALE-UP generally well received but Need for further study: Staff involvement and academic dimension. Opportunity for longitudinal study Impact of level 4 experience on future study. Need for further work: Training and development of staff to support SCALE-UP activity: Constructive alignment of delivery and assessment Recognition of issues with delivery and preparation of material. Cost benefit analysis for future use of SCALE-UP.

Any Questions Contacts Helen Kay (LEAD): helen.kay@shu.ac.uk Tim Parker (ACES): acestp3@exchange.shu.ac.uk Dave Greenfield (ACES): mridg@exchange.shu.ac.uk Oliver Lewis (ACES): acesol@exchange.shu.ac.uk Anne Nortcliffe (ACES): engano@exchange.shu.ac.uk