Scaling up Education Reform.

Picture your favorite restaurant. Which aspects make it a relaxing, comfortable environment? What if you could take those aspects and apply them to a classroom? Imagine students seated at round tables, discussing physics while “waiters” (the course instructors) bounce around among the tables, asking questions. In fact, many such classrooms are now in operation across the country, and studies are showing major benefits over traditional lecture settings. Over the years, quite a few pedagogical advances have been demonstrated to work effectively (see Figure 1). The common factor in most of them is interaction. However, economics at large universities simply require that classes have large enrollment to be sustainable. The SCALEUP (Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment for Undergraduate Programs) project was developed to implement reforms designed for small classes into large physics classes. Notwithstanding its specific initial motivation, the SCALE-UP learning environment is general in terms of both class size and discipline. Over 50 schools across the country, ranging from Wake Technical Community College to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have adopted it for classes of various sizes. SCALEintended as a support mechanism to help students outside of class and are periodically changed to ensure optimal effectiveness (Heller and Hollabaugh 1992). In front of each student is a nametag, held in place with an aluminum name block (see Figure 4; later in this article we will describe an activity using these). The nametags are always prominently displayed so that no student can remain anonymous. In a SCALE-UP classroom, it is impossible for a student to hide; the design of the room prohibits students from choosing a seat in the middle of a row or in the back of the class. Students are accessible to the instructors and to each other, and any student can be asked to present work at any time. This promotes individual accountability while enhancing personal interaction among students and with the instructors (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 1991). Also shared by each group is a computer connected to the internet and loaded with course-relevant software. The instructor’s computer is able to observe and, if necessary, control students’ computers to prevent distraction. While computers are quite helpful if present, SCALE-UP can be run without them. Located on all walls of the classroom are whiteboards; additional personal whiteboards are distributed as needed. These whiteboards are Scaling Up Education Reform