Operationalization of Innovative and Traditional Pedagogical Practices within Undergraduate Bioengineering Courses

Abstract

This study operationalizes pedagogical practices using classroom observation data collected in twenty-eight bioengineering courses at a southeastern research university over five semesters. Using an index that distinguishes pedagogy reflecting principles of the “How People Learn” framework and pedagogy representing traditional, lecture-based instruction, the author presents five “How People Learn” instructional practices (i.e., guidance by the instructor, comments, praise, monitoring, and question and response) and four statistically significant subcategories representing traditional instructional practices (i.e., instruction by media, lecture, praise, and no response) that were most likely to occur within observed How People Learn-oriented classes and traditional, lecture-based classes, respectively. Included are details about classroom activities that occurred to make up the code strings representing each of these statistically significant subcategories within both types of courses. The operationalization of the code strings confirms the alignment of the subcategories with pedagogical practices that are most likely to occur within innovative and traditional courses.

Keywords

• How people learn
• SoTL of bioengineering
• Pedagogical practices