Reflections on Implementing Active Learning

David Pugalee, Director, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Center for STEM Education, david.pugalee@uncc.edu
Alisa Wickliff, Associate Director, Center for STEM Education, UNC Charlotte
Kathy Asala, Teaching Professor, UNC Charlotte
Premkumar Pugalenthi, Education Specialist, Center for STEM Education, UNC Charlotte

Abstract

Reforming undergraduate STEM education is a major emphasis given the growing needs for preparing a technical workforce that is science-literate. One of the promising instructional approaches is active learning which is consistently shown to be a more effective strategy than lecture alone. This project was a collaboration between two faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and the Center for STEM Education around the implementation of active learning strategies in introductory chemistry (CHEM 1252). A cycle of pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities were employed for course topics with the goal being to scaffold the learning process for students. The study included an investigation of the challenges and accomplishments an instructor experiences when implementing active learning into an undergraduate chemistry course. Data characterizes both the challenges and accomplishments the instructor experienced during the implementation of the active learning approach.