Learner-Centered Pedagogy in a Liberal Arts Mathematics Course

Abstract

We discuss the pedagogical redesign of a liberal arts mathematics course that enrolls roughly 3000 students per year. Flipping the classroom is a prominent feature of the new pedagogical approach. We describe the nature of this redesign, course resources, and how students are assessed for both preparation and understanding. We also indicate how the course redesign was implemented, and we assess its success. The results thus far are encouraging. For example, an analysis of course grades indicates increased performance for students participating in the redesigned course, but we are cognizant of several confounding factors.

Keywords:

• Flipped classroom
• liberal arts mathematics
• learner-centered teaching
• inverted pedagogy
• flipped pedagogy
• learner-centered pedagogy

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

¹ We chose not to separate fall semesters from spring semesters, regardless of the common belief that fall grades differ significantly from spring grades. A chi-square test of independence applied to our fall and spring grades (p-value 0.45) does not suggest that fall grade distributions differ significantly from spring grade distributions.

² We chose not to organize our data by MAP course section because some instructors teach many more MAP sections than others. Organizing our data by instructor, rather than course section, ensures that each instructor’s MAP grade distribution carries equal weight in our analysis.

³ It should be pointed out that MAP underwent a textbook change in Fall 2013. A chi-square test of independence for grade distributions suggests that we should not conclude that the change of textbook resulted in a change of grade distribution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robin Rufatto

Robin Rufatto has taught math at all levels from middle school through to college. Her mathematical science degrees are from Ball State University, where she is currently a member of the faculty in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Her primary interests are designing and teaching courses in the freshman sequence. Outside of the university, she is involved in the music program at her church. She and her husband have five children and eight grandchildren with more on the way.

Holly Dickin

Holly Dickin has been in the teaching profession for almost 10 years and is fortunate to have a career that is also her passion in life. She earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a master’s degree in Teaching Mathematics from the University of Idaho. After teaching public school mathematics in California and Texas, she moved to teaching in higher education at the University of Idaho and at Ball State University. When Holly is not teaching, you will frequently find her out on the soccer fields either cheering on her son or playing a bit of the game herself. They also enjoy camping together and finding any reason to be outdoors!

Alina Florescu

Alina Florescu attended Mount Holyoke College as an undergraduate and completed her graduate studies in mathematics at the University of Iowa in 2013. She now teaches introductory math courses at Ball State University where she also serves on the Freshman Sequence Committee. When she is not working, she enjoys reading, traveling, and completing many Sudoku puzzles.

Crystal Lorch

Crystal Lorch grew up in Idaho and attended graduate school at Oklahoma State University. She and her family now reside in Muncie, Indiana, where she enjoys teaching mathematics at Ball State University and attending various musical and sporting events for her two teenagers.

Ralph Bremigan

Ralph Bremigan studied mathematics at the University of Chicago and Brandeis University, with a specialty in Lie groups. Since 2009, he has overseen program assessment in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Ball State University. Outside of work, he enjoys music, hiking, and spending time with his wife Beth and son Tom.

John Lorch

John Lorch holds degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado and Oklahoma State University. Since 1998, John has been a member of the Mathematical Sciences Department at Ball State University. When not professing or chairing, he enjoys music, reading classic supernatural tales, and spending time with his wife Crystal and his children, Carolyn and Rob.