Introducing an Instructional Model for "Flipped Engineering Classrooms" -Part (II): How Do Group Discussions Foster Meaningful Learning?

This study focuses on research questions concerning how a newly designed Four-Practice instructional model helps students learn in “flipped classrooms”. It examines in-classroom learning and analyzes how group discussions influence student learning. Problem-centered pedagogies employed in the new instructional model are found to engage students in collaborative dialogues during group discussions. Discussion discourse functions as a heuristic teaching and learning tool that supports students’ learning of content knowledge and skills in meaningful ways. The pilot instructional model helps build a learning community that promotes the development of cognitive abilities through joint efforts between the instructor and students.

[1]  S. Michaels,et al.  When Is Dialogue ‘Dialogic’? , 2007, Human Development.

[2]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. , 1999 .

[3]  L. Vygotsky.  Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[4]  Martin Nystrand,et al.  Questions in Time: Investigating the Structure and Dynamics of Unfolding Classroom Discourse , 2003 .

[5]  T. Anderson,et al.  Design-Based Research , 2012 .

[6]  R. Mayer.  Rote Versus Meaningful Learning , 2002 .

[7]  D. Krathwohl.  A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview , 2002 .

[8]  Chrysanthe Demetry,et al.  Work in progress — An innovation merging “classroom flip” and team-based learning , 2010, 2010 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE).

[9]  Jia-Ling Lin,et al.  Helping engineering students develop skills in content-based problem solving workshops outside classrooms , 2012, 2012 Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings.

[10]  D. Perkins,et al.  Teaching for Transfer. , 1988 .

[11]  Tamara J. Moore,et al.  Introducing an instructional model in undergraduate electric power energy systems curriculum-part (I): Authoritative vs. Dialogic discourse in problem-centered learning , 2013 .

[12]  David Skidmore,et al.  A dialogical pedagogy for inclusive education , 2005 .

[13]  Jeremy F. Strayer,et al.  The effects of the classroom flip on the learning environment: a comparison of learning activity in a traditional classroom and a flip classroom that used an intelligent tutoring system , 2007 .

[14]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Rote Versus Meaningful Learning 1 , 2002 .

[15]  A. D. Trice,et al.  A Handbook of Classroom Assessment , 1999 .

[16]  Maarten van Someren,et al.  The Think Aloud Method: A Practical Guide to Modelling Cognitive Processes , 1994 .

[17]  Robert E. Haskell,et al.  Transfer of Learning , 2004 .

[18]  John C. Strikwerda,et al.  Reversing the Lecture/Homework Paradigm Using eTEACH® Web‐based Streaming Video Software , 2002 .

[19]  M. Lage,et al.  Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment , 2000 .

[20]  Karen M. Bursic,et al.  Verbal Protocol Analysis as a Method to Document Engineering Student Design Processes , 1998 .

[21]  Thomas A. Litzinger,et al.  "flipping" the classroom to explore active learning in a large undergraduate course , 2009 .

[22]  Diana Joseph.  The Practice of Design-Based Research: Uncovering the Interplay Between Design, Research, and the Real-World Context , 2004 .

[23]  G. Wells.  Dialogic Inquiry: Towards a Socio-cultural Practice and Theory of Education , 1999 .

[24]  M. Bakhtin,et al.  Speech genres and other late essays , 1986 .

[25]  Margaret S. Smith,et al.  Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions: Five Practices for Helping Teachers Move Beyond Show and Tell , 2008 .

[26]  R. A. Engle,et al.  Guiding Principles for Fostering Productive Disciplinary Engagement: Explaining an Emergent Argument in a Community of Learners Classroom , 2002 .