Turning away from students for a time, here are some thoughts on
administrators and professors:
The physics department has 2 people that I know of with a PER
background. There may be more that I am not aware of, or perhaps have
forgotten references to such. These 2 have been instrumental in
creating the SCALE-UP classroom. I believe their interest in doing so
had extended over several/many years, but it was only recently that
it came to fruition. In part this happened because the dept chairman
is also interested in improving education. However, there were other
factors that appeared to help. This University, and every department
in it, is under tremendous pressure to cut budgets. Even more than I
imagined. So, in addition to the educational aspects, there was
something to be said about a SCALE-UP classroom's potential
efficiency in terms of classroom utilization if not instructor
resources, despite the counterintuitive fact that an initial
investment would have to be made. I was not privy to any discussions
about this - those all came before me, and I wouldn't have been
included anyway. I'm not saying it wasn't studied carefully; in fact,
in this day and age, I'd be surprised if it wasn't studied and
reported on somewhere. In addition, I was not privy to any internal
discussions about the effectiveness of physics teaching in general at
the University; however, I'm sure they existed on an ongoing basis
for various reasons - after all, the failure or success of education
is always a topic du jour.
In addition to the support of the chairman, there was support from a
previous chairman, and together, this small group of people was
influential enough to attract the attention of administrators higher
up in the university. Over an unknown time period taken to percolate,
a SCALE-UP classroom was eventually born. The classroom construction
was finished, more or less, only days before the start of the fall
semester. I was hired only 2 weeks before the start of class, but in
large part this was because I didn't even uncover the opportunity
until late; nevertheless, there was really no one in reserve.
The 2 people with PER backgrounds were to be the teachers (one lead,
one subordinate), with me as an assistant, learning the ropes as it
were. In addition, we had an undergraduate TA: 4 people in total,
with enrollment limited to 45. During the enrollment period, which
happened the previous spring or perhaps during the summer to some
extent, students were presented with a brief description of the
SCALE-UP classroom, *as envisioned*, comparing it to a traditional
section (I will describe these later). This description, word of
mouth, a hunch as to what they might prefer, and possibly some
consultation on ratemyprofessors.com, were all the students had to go
on in deciding which section to take. They indicated as much to us on
the entry surveys.
It is my understanding that among the larger body of faculty in the
physics department, support was mixed if not negative to some degree.
It is my understanding that there were essentially no volunteers for
SCALE-UP other than the 2 with PER backgrounds; this is part of the
reason I was hired; while it is likely that some who would have
otherwise volunteered could not because of fixed schedule conflicts
at that point, it must be said that a) while I was hired very late,
the implementation was percolating and planned for some time - even
early on, instructor resources were known to be scarce. b) there were
issues finding instructor resources for the second semester as well,
which reinforces the notion that enthusiasm was held by relatively
few.
There was also some open, although relatively good-natured, hostility
(if I may be allowed to toss those words together). I was in the
classroom early on the very first day, and a well-known professor in
the dept, who taught a competing section, stopped by to just see the
thing for himself. We chatted briefly and cordially, despite never
having met before, and he let me know, as he was leaving, that his
section would be burying ours (I believe those were the words). The
same professor returned during the semester with more serious
complaints about our section. I will address those later.
As a final note at this point, I wish to emphasize that I believe
this department is probably typical of such a department at a large
public research University. The research and tenure focus is likely
not conducive to great strides in the quality of education itself -
there seem to be plenty of professors who don't want to teach. But
there are also those who are dedicated to it and believe they do it
well. And there are some that are dedicated to it and actually do do
it well. SCALE-UP, with both its detractors and its champions, faced
the same issue - can it be done well, will it be done well. It was
going to be anything but invisible. For this reason, it was
considered important to be able to measure something about it. It is
not clear to me that the *measurement* lived up to its potential.
Whether *SCALE-UP* lived up to its potential is a more complicated,
and continuing, question.