Flipping Out and Digging in: Combining the Flipped Class and Project-Based Learning to Teach Adult Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-372
Author(s):  
Clare M. Mehta

The urgent need for a worldwide workforce trained in gerontology (Silverstein, N. M., & Fitzgerald, K. G. (2017). Educating a new generation of professionals in agingworldwide. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 38, 1-4) has lead for a call by gerontology educators to employ creative, innovative, novel, and engaging pedagogy in gerontological education (Brown,P. P. (2016). From pedagogy to practice: Adventures in student engagement. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 37, 105-107; Niles-Yokum, K., & Howe, J. L. (2015). Making aging real through reflective teaching and learning strategies. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 36, 107–108; Siegal, B., & Kagan, S. (2012). Teaching psychological and social gerontology to millennial undergraduates. Educational Gerontology, 38, 20–29). This article outlines a novel approach to teaching—combining the flipped classroom with project-based learning—that not only fosters deep learning but also fosters the development of skills applicable to real life. This article describes how to turn traditional lectures into online lectures to “flip” the classroom and also provides a guide for setting up project-based learning, providing suggestions for group formation, project topics, and examples of project contracts and evaluation sheets. When employed together, these powerful teaching tools can provide students with an active, participatory, class experience with the potential to inspire a lifelong interest in adult development and gerontology.

Author(s):  
Victor K. Lai

Abstract As the COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden shift to online teaching and learning in April 2020, one of the more significant challenges faced by instructors is encouraging and maintaining student engagement in their online classes. This paper describes my experience of flipping an online classroom for a core Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics class to promote student engagement and collaboration in an online setting. Comparing exam scores with prior semesters involving in-person, traditional lecture-style classes suggests students need a certain degree of adjustment to adapt to this new learning mode. A decrease in Student Rating of Teaching (SRT) scores indicates that students largely prefer in-person, traditional lectures over an online flipped class, even though written comments in the SRT contained several responses favorable to flipping the class in an online setting. Overall, SRT scores on a department level also showed a similar decrease, which suggests students were less satisfied with the quality of teaching overall throughout the department, with this flipped method of instruction neither improving nor worsening student sentiment towards online learning. In addition, whereas most students liked the pre-recorded lecture videos, they were less enthusiastic about using breakout rooms to encourage student collaboration and discussion. Further thought and discussion on best practices to facilitate online student interaction and collaboration are recommended, as online learning will likely continue to grow in popularity even when in-person instruction resumes after the pandemic.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Valentina Domenici

Non-formal learning environments, such as science museums, have a fundamental role in science education and high potentialities as ideal contexts for science teachers’ training. These aspects have been analyzed and reported in several recent works mainly focused on students’ perception of science and increased engagement towards scientific disciplines. In this work, a project-based learning methodology optimized and experimented in the frame of a pre-service chemistry teachers’ course at the University of Pisa (Italy), during the last eight years, involving in total 171 participants, is presented. This educational project has several distinctive features related to the STEAM philosophy, with a high level of multi-disciplinarity and creativity. Most of the laboratories and chemistry-centered activities were conceived, planned and carried out by the future chemistry teachers in non-formal contexts, such as science museums. A case study based on a series of non-formal laboratories designed by a group of students during their training in the academic year 2018–2019 and performed in a science museum is reported and examined in details. In this paper, all steps of the STEAM project-based learning methodology are described underlining the main learning outcomes and cognitive levels involved in each step and the relevant methodologies proposed during the training course and adopted in the project. The effectiveness of this pre-service teachers’ training methodology is finally discussed in terms of participants’ motivation and interest towards the course’s content, students’ final judgment of their training experiences and, in particular, of the STEAM project-based learning activities. From the students’ feedbacks and final assessment, the role of the non-formal context in teaching and learning chemistry and the efficacy of developing educational activities related to current and real-life chemistry-centered topics emerged as very positive aspects of the proposed approach.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.10) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Nivetha Martin ◽  
P Pandiammal

In the existing educational scenario, the mechanisms of teaching and learning that are conventional have to be enriched unanimously to promote the development of the student community in all dimensions. The present government rings the bell of Digital India, which targets in making the service sectors to be digitally empowered. But in recent days, digitalization has stepped into almost all the fields and education is not an exception to it. The traditional blackboard teaching method was replaced by ICT techniques, but the learning strategies remained customary. To bring a change in the learning mode, the student community has to be provided a platform to learn at their own pace, which can be achieved by imparting the digital way of learning. Incorporation of Digitalization into teaching cum learning domains will pave way for Glean knowledge. Though there are many confrontations in implementation, the degree of the positive effects is high. This paper primarily aims in determining the effects of core factors of digitalization causing major effects on student’s learning mode using a novel approach of Linguistic Induced Fuzzy Associative Memories (LIFAM).  


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Marion Blumenstein

Purpose – This paper aims to provide insights into the experiences of and challenges confronting higher degree research students and learning advisors (LAs) regarding data analysis support. The ability to handle data and use numerical evidence systematically is an important transferable skill and essential for the successful completion of a quantitative research thesis. Design/methodology/approach – A combination of qualitative and quantitative data was used, enabling a convergence of findings: the questionnaire and one-on-one advisory sessions feedback gathered information on the student experience, while semi-structured interviews provided data on the LAs’ perspective. Findings – Phenomenographic analysis of interviews revealed many challenges associated with centralised learning support provision. Learning advisors recognised not only different disciplinary needs but also the tensions associated with working centrally and cross-disciplinary. Students identified a need for more practice-orientated training opportunities in data analysis during their postgraduate and doctoral research. Practical implications – Understanding gained from students’ and LAs’ experiences are essential for changes of university-wide teaching and learning strategies. The collection of “bottom-up” data on the student experience combined with data on learning thresholds provided by faculty and student learning support units would allow a coordinated, institution-wide approach to identified learning needs. Originality/value – Developing a community of practice concerned with quantitative literacy means that staff with expert knowledge, regardless of discipline affiliation, can provide an environment in which students are able to develop their analytical skills further and can participate in ongoing discussions on real-life research and data analysis issues.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-69
Author(s):  
Dhiraj Shrestha ◽  
Satyendra Nath Lohani ◽  
Roshan Manjushree Adhikari

The concept of Active Learning (AL), which has journeyed through multiple research studies over the years, is an important part of the teaching learning process at academic institutions. The present study applies active learning via project-based approaches where students engage in real life projects and solve associated complications with their research, communication, and technical skills. As a case study of effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL), especially in engineering project contexts, the present research is conducted among students studying computer science and engineering at Kathmandu University (KU), Nepal. The key findings of the study suggest that PBL assignments have helped students in their active learning processes. This paper also compares teaching and learning approaches of KU with other IT institutions of Nepal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (38) ◽  
pp. 223-236
Author(s):  
Le Thi Chi Giao ◽  
Bich Dieu Nguyen

Teaching for enhanced learning experience has well-received great interest from many teachers and educators around the world. In the EFL setting, tremendous efforts have been recognized in taking students out of a conventional classroom to experience a new way of learning which stimulates interest and creative thinking, which improves communication and collaborative skills, and which exposes students to more meaningful real-life situations. Project-based learning (PBL) is an answer to this, and it has developed as an alternative to teaching a foreign language with a focus on enhanced learning experience and increased creative teambuilding and group skills through meaningful projects. This paper presents how PBL has been adopted at the University of Foreign Language Studies – the University of Danang (UFLS-UD). It revisits the significance of PBL, the structure of a PBL activity, and reports how PBL has been situated in the local context of teaching English to students majoring in English in Vietnam. The reflections reported here showcase the gains through the path of action research enacted by individual teachers who act as change agents or enablers of this innovative teaching and learning approach and whose efforts have been recognized by means of several adaptations made to bring real life and a sense of community into language instruction.


Author(s):  
Jacobus N. Cronjé

Business managers and students often criticise university teaching for not addressing real-life problems. Furthermore, professors are dissatisfied with the research capabilities of postgraduate students. This paper advocates an integrated approach to teaching and learning based on the features of project-based learning aimed at enhancing the practical and research skills of undergraduate students in Logistics. A case study is presented where third-year students were engaged in a real-life project in collaboration with industry, exposing them to collaborative learning, questionnaire design, surveys, analysing and evaluating results, literature review and report writing. The project was carried out in phases where students were assessed after each phase. The paper analyses the assessment of students and their perception of the value of the project. It is concluded that an integrated teaching and learning approach will increase students’ interest in the subject, understanding of theoretical concepts, research skills, business skills and life skills.


Author(s):  
Hamimah Ujir ◽  
Shanti Faridah Salleh ◽  
Ade Syaheda Wani Marzuki ◽  
Hashimatul Fatma Hashim ◽  
Aidil Azli Alias

A standard equation on teaching workload calculation in the previous academic setting only includes the contact hours with students through lecture, tutorial, laboratory and in-person consultation (i.e. one-to-one final year project consultation). This paper discusses teaching workload factors according to the current higher-education setting. Devising a teaching workload equation that includes all teaching and learning strategies in the 21<sup>st</sup> century higher education learning setting is needed. This is indeed a challenging task for the academic administrators to scrutinize every single parameter that accounted for teaching and learning. In this work, we have discussed the parameters which are significant in teaching workload calculation. For instance, the conventional in-person contact with the students, type of delivery, type of assessment, the preparation of materials for flipped classroom as well as MOOC, to name a few. Teaching workload also affects quality teaching and from the academic perception, the higher workload means lower-quality teaching.


2013 ◽  
pp. 463-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal Grandgenett ◽  
Elliott Ostler ◽  
Neal Topp ◽  
Robert Goeman

Some of the best learning may occur in the context of a problem, whether in life or in the formal educational classroom. This chapter focuses on the use of educational robotics as a rich context for real-life applications and problems that can encourage the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in formal K-12 educational environments. The chapter presents research related to the compatibility of educational robotics with problem-based learning, as well as two years of field test results from a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that is developing, testing, and refining an educational robotics curriculum. This curriculum has a foundation of problem-based learning strategies. The national curriculum effort uses an open-source programmable, robot platform and a Web-based cyber-infrastructure delivery system that provides teachers with a flexible lesson structure, compatible with national standards and engaging students in problem-based learning.


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