Summary
In this study, the researchers examined the classroom behaviour of 13 STEM faculty teaching biology courses in a reformed undergraduate STEM learning environment.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The researchers evaluated thirteen faculty teaching mostly introductory undergraduate biology courses.

Methodology
Two to three class sessions were video-recorded for each instructor during the middle of the semester to capture the instructors’ representative teaching practices. hen, the researchers practiced coding videos of classrooms, discussed COPUS codes that were not unanimously selected, and calculated interrater reliability (IRR) for a subset of the overall video data using fully crossed design. The relative abundance of collapsed COPUS codes was determined to compare instructor and student behaviours across courses and class sessions in a reformed undergraduate STEM learning environment.

Results
The results suggest that when teaching in reformed environments, instructors guided student learning three times more than they presented information while student worked individually or in groups and talked to the whole class 1.5 times more than they received information. They found significant positive correlation between instructor and student behaviours that suggests instructors can change their own classroom behaviours and expect changes in their student behaviours. Additionally, active-engagement instruction is a given in reformed learning environments.

Point of Strength
They found that while presenting information was positively associated with ‘students receiving’ that information, this approach limited students’ abilities to work with others and talk in class. Conversely, when instructors where mainly guiding students’ learning, students tended to work with others and talk during class.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2019.1649503

Keywords
Undergraduate, active learning, classroom observation protocol, COPUS, active-engagement instruction, evidence-based learning, science teaching