Developing a Measure of Diverse Student Perceptions and Valuation of Flipped Instruction in Chemistry

This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing and measuring student perceptions of fundamental design principles of effective and inclusive flipped undergraduate gateway chemistry courses. Flipped instruction is a popular evidence-based instructional practice among chemistry faculty in the United States. It enables in-class facilitation of active student engagement with chemical concepts.

Despite its popularity, historically marginalized student groups may benefit the least, if at all, from flipped undergraduate gateway chemistry courses. This project proposes to advance understanding of these achievement differences by examining how diverse students engage in these courses. The project intends to advance theses aims through developing a conceptual framework of essential design principles of effective and inclusive flipped undergraduate gateway chemistry courses and a related measurement tool for use by faculty.

The conceptual framework is intentionally grounded in students’ diverse backgrounds and how they engage with, perceive, and value flipped instruction in undergraduate gateway chemistry courses. Importantly, the framework has the potential to open a productive pipeline of evidence leading to future identification, manipulation, adoption, and amplification of high impact flipped instruction for diverse groups in undergraduate gateway chemistry courses.

The project plans to use a sequential exploratory mixed methods study design to develop the conceptual framework and a corresponding psychometric instrument to measure diverse students’ perceptions and valuation of the essential design principles. The project’s development process is designed to begin with in-depth interviews with students from flipped General and Organic Chemistry courses taught by 6 field-leading instructors at public, private, research intensive, and teaching institutions across 5 states.

The process continues by generating a set of essential design principles from interview data which will be used to develop items for the psychometric instrument. The project then intends to refine and test the instrument by returning to new cohorts of students at the same institutions in its final two years. To ensure STEM diversity enhancement, historically marginalized student groups will be proactively included in every project phase.

This project also plans to provide training for instructors and researchers to adopt the flipped instruction essential design principles with fidelity in their local undergraduate gateway chemistry courses. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program 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.