Small-Scale Learning in a Large-Scale Class: A Blended Model for Team Teaching in Mathematics

Abstract

We discuss an innovative course model used in first-year calculus courses at a large North American research university, which we refer to as the “Blended Model.” We argue that our model takes the best features of lectures, flipped classrooms, and traditional recitations, and gathers them into a cohesive, robust structure that benefits students’ learning, graduate students’ teaching, and Mathematics departments’ management of resources.

Keywords:

• Active learning
• calculus
• blended model
• team teaching

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The data cited in this work were collected in a project supported by the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vanessa Radzimski

Vanessa Radzimski is a faculty member in mathematics at the University of the Fraser Valley. She earned her Master’s degree in mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) before transitioning into her Ph.D. studies in mathematics education at UBC. Her primary research interest is examining the role advanced mathematical knowledge plays in prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ knowledge for teaching.

Fok-Shuen Leung

Fok-Shuen Leung is a faculty member in mathematics at UBC, and an Academic Director of UBC’s First Year Experience. He has taught a number of innovative undergraduate courses at UBC, including in the interdisciplinary Science One program. In 2014, he led a team of graduate and undergraduate students, including Vanessa and Pam, to develop the blended model described in this paper.

Pam Sargent

Pam Sargent is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Yale University. Prior to arriving at Yale, she completed her Ph.D. in mathematics at UBC. In addition to being a member of the blended model team at UBC, she was involved in the development of the Peer-Assisted Study Sessions program at UBC and has many interests in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Alain Prat

Alain Prat is a science teaching and learning fellow with the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative in the Department of Mathematics at UBC. He received his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from UBC in 2015. His current research focuses on learning analytics, teaching methods comparisons, and the study habits of first-year students.