Transforming the Classroom into an Active Learning Environment to Improve Comprehension, Retention, and Graduation Rates

This project aims to serve the national interest by significantly increasing student retention rate from 39%, well below the national average, to about the national average (59%) at the College of Engineering at Prairie View A&M University. The approach to be employed is the transitioning of instruction from traditional lecture mode to an innovative approach called the Formatively Assessed Student Centered Instruction and Active Learning (FASCIAL) approach.

The FASCIAL approach is focused on greater student-centered instruction in which learning is made more interactive by engaging students in individual and small group activities which test students’ understanding of important concepts. Frequent feedback is sought with regard to student knowledge and difficulties, teaching is then modified in a way that enhances learning.

Transformation of a total of fifteen courses impacting 1900 students is planned. The expectation is that the use of the FASCIAL approach will result in improved student conceptual understanding as well as enhanced retention and graduation rates at Prairie View A&M University, a public, historically black land grant institution. The project will contribute significantly to the (i) production of competent future STEM faculty through training of graduate and undergraduate student assistants in the new FASCIAL strategy, (ii) lessening of student loan burdens through accelerated graduation, and (iii) reduction in student attrition rate, hence increased retention and graduation rates to help meet the urgent labor demand for the future technological workforce.

The project will involve the training of a team of nine faculty members in Discipline Based Educational Research (DBER) practices. Faculty will be drawn from Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering as well as the College of Education. Fifteen engineering undergraduate courses are to be re-structured for an innovative instructional delivery approach which uses DBER-based active learning to improve students’ conceptual understanding.

Six different active learning activities including, Think-Pair-Share collaborative learning and process oriented guided inquiry learning, are to be incorporated in the instructional materials. The effectiveness of the new instructional approach will be investigated through rigorous data collection and analysis, furthermore, findings will be disseminated for broader adoption within the institution and beyond.

Appropriate hypotheses are posited to guide the investigations, and there are plans to develop comprehensive surveys for students, program level instructors and student learning assistants to assess the hypotheses. To help faculty transition from traditional lectures to the FASCIAL approach, there will be systematic training by renowned experts, thereby improving instructors’ ability to design effective learning tasks that are critical to enhanced student learning, retention and graduation rates.

Additionally, to facilitate student-centered instruction and active learning, the redesign and re-arrangement of classroom spaces will be carried out as per the well known Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) approach. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.

Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.

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.