Implementation and Faculty Reflection of an Instrument to Measure Student Response to Instructional Practices

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Research has provided evidence on the benefits of active learning on student learning and success in the engineering classroom yet the adoption has been slow. Engineering classrooms in the USA remain traditionally lecture and instructor based. As numerous engineering education grants receive funding (Borrego & Olds, 2011), and the amount of researchers increase, one has to wonder why many engineering classrooms remain lecture based when it has been shown that nontraditional teaching methods are more effective at promoting student learning (Freeman et al., 2014; Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1991; M. Prince, 2004). Nontraditional teaching methods are defined in the paper as teaching methods that incorporate student engagement in the classroom and can be compared to the lack of student engagement shown by traditional lecture. Nontraditional teaching methods in engineering education have been documented in many different forms such as pedagogies of engagement (Smith, Sheppard, Johnson, & Johnson, 2005), inductive teaching methods (M. J. Prince & Felder, 2006), and research based instructional strategies (Borrego, Cutler, Prince, Henderson, & Froyd, 2013). Prior research has suggested that students’ response may have a significant effect on instructors’ willingness to adopt different types of instruction. The research team created an instrument to measure the effects of several variables on student response to instructional practices. The survey queried types of instruction which were separated into four factors (interactive, constructive, active, and passive); strategies for using in-class activities broken into two factors (explanation and facilitation); and student responses to instruction divided into five factors (value, positivity, participation, distraction, and evaluation). This paper will describe instrument created to measure Student Response to Instructional Practices, a useful tool for understanding the relationship between the type of instruction used and students’ response and faculty use of the tool.

Author(s):

Cynthia Waters    
NCA&T State University
United States

Kevin Nguyen    
University of Texas
United States

Maura Borrego    
University of Texas
United States