This project builds on an NSF (DUE-935426) project that resulted in the creation and implementation of a large (more than1500 students/yr) reformed introductory physics course at the University of California, Davis in 1996. Empirical evidence shows that student performance is significantly higher in a subsequent course and on the medical college admissions test (MCAT) for students who took the reformed physics course compared to students who took the previously offered traditionally taught physics course or traditionally taught physics courses elsewhere. The kinds of reform made in this physics course 10 years ago anticipated what is now being called for in the several recent NRC reports focusing on undergraduate STEM education. Students who experience these kinds of instructional reform tend to make more use and become more comfortable using higher order cognitive thinking processes. This project extends these kinds of reform to a small number of sections of the math and chemistry courses that a number of students take simultaneously with the reformed physics course and closely examines the affect that taking all three courses has on this cohort of students. The predicted outcome is that the students who experience similar reformed instruction in all their math and physical science courses will show even greater instructional performance gains in subsequent courses than students who have experienced just one reformed course.
Intellectual Merit: The innovative aspects of this project are: it takes instructional innovations used in one discipline, physics, and introduces these reforms into courses in other disciplines (math and chemistry) taken simultaneously by the same students; the innovations are being introduced without making significant changes or causing disruptions in these other courses or in the culture of delivering large introductory courses in these disciplines; the project engages the graduate student teaching assistants who do most of the teaching of these courses. The small number of sections that are the focus of this project can be expanded to all sections of these courses so, if successful, the changes can be quickly institutionalized. Teaching assistant development programs are already in place and need to be only modified. This project will begin to provide empirical evidence about the feasibility of using graduate assistants as agents of change as well as on the need to have students experience educational reform in a number of courses in order for these reforms to be effective.
Broader Impact: This project addresses two questions posed by pedagogical reform efforts at large research universities: how to introduce active and interactive learning methods into large classes; and what is the effect on student learning in undergraduate STEM instruction when students experienced reformed instruction in multiple math and science courses simultaneously.
