Developing the FILL+ Tool to Reliably Classify Classroom Practices Using Lecture Recordings

Abstract

Lectures are a commonly used teaching method in higher education, but there is significant debate about the relative merits of different classroom practices. Various classroom observation tools have been developed to try to give insight into these prac- tices, beyond the simple dichotomy of “traditional lecturing versus active learning”. Here we review of a selection of classroom observation protocols from an ethologi- cal perspective and describe how this informed the development of a new protocol, FILL+. We demonstrate that FILL+ can be applied reliably by undergraduate stu- dents after minimal training. We analysed a sample of 208 lecture recordings from Mathematics, Physics, and Veterinary Medicine and found a wide variety of class- erably. The FILL+ protocol has the potential to be widely used, both in research on questions, and 79.3% (±19%) of the lecture talking, but individuals varied consid- room practices, e.g. on average lecturers spent 2.1% (±2.6%) of the time asking effective teaching practices, and in informing discussion of pedagogical approaches within institutions and disciplines

Behind the Paper

This was a Principal’s Teaching Award grant project and I have to say, I really love working with the Schools of Maths and Physics! We had great student support on this project from Ross and Thomas, and my colleague, Steph, who put in an enormous amount of work validating these tools. All very cool.