This project aims to serve the national need for high quality STEM education. It intends do so by improving student engagement and learning in statistics. Understanding statistics is an important part of STEM literacy, and such understanding can be useful in making decisions. The project will focus on improving an introductory statistical literacy course that meets the University’s general education requirement in mathematics. As a result, the course enrolls about 1000 students per year. The project expects that student engagement and learning in this course will be improved by providing online lectures, with classtime reserved for doing problems and activities. This approach is often called a “flipped†classroom. Since the introductory statistics course is usually taught through in-class lecture alone, the project can compare performance of students in course sections that use the flipped classroom versus sections that use the traditional lecture classroom. As a result, it has the potential to increase understanding about how students learn statistics and about the impact of learning in flipped classrooms.
The project objectives include: (a) to determine whether the flipped classroom model differently impacts students; and (b) if such differences occur, to provide quantitative and qualitative measures of those differences. The project team will use a data-driven, evidence-based mixed methods approach to evaluate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom model. It will also address research questions, including: To what extent and in what ways does the flipped classroom model contribute to students’ understanding and performance in elementary statistics? Results from research and formative evaluation will be used to continuously examine the effectiveness of the flipped classroom model on student learning and attitudes. The project will use this information to modify and refine the course components to increase course effectiveness. Summative evaluation and feedback will be based on classroom data and student attitudinal instruments. These results will guide development of the final model of an effective flipped introductory statistics course, which will be disseminated so that other institutions can replicate or adapt it. The project will consider impacts on groups of students, including students from groups typically underrepresented in STEM disciplines and first-generation students. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
