Abstract:

The use of flipped classroom and active engagement is becoming increasingly widespread in introductory undergraduate science courses. In this presentation I will discuss the use of a flipped classroom and active engagement in advanced physics instruction. The classes where these approaches have been used are advanced undergraduate dynamics taken by senior students, and graduate classical mechanics. Both classes are theory classes with no laboratory component. Lectures that include the derivations and mathematical treatment of the subject are placed on line, however those lectures include embedded assessments. Class time is reserved for group problem solving and addressing questions that arise from the on-line lectures. Additional details of the structure of the classes will be discussed in the presentation. None of the students in these classes have ever had a flipped class in physics instruction, and almost none of the graduate students have ever had any kind of active engagement in their undergraduate classes, let alone graduate courses, which are all taught in the traditional style. Students in theses classes have been surveyed to determine their response to this approach to instruction. In addition, an experimental instructional setting was used to gauge graduate student response to active engagement in a class. The results of the surveys and interviews are that advanced physics students respond well to these pedagogical techniques. Moreover, understanding of the material is not compromised, and the evidence of several years of graduate qualifying exams is that student success on the classical mechanics portion of the exam was superior after the transformation of the class.

Keywords:

Physics education, flipped class.