Leveraging Faculty Reflective Practice to Understand Active Learning Spaces: Flashbacks and Re-Captures

Abstract

Although learning spaces research is not new, research approaches that target the specific teaching and learning experiences of faculty and students who occupy active learning classrooms (ALCs) is nascent. We report on two novels data collection approaches: Flashbacks and Re-captures. Both leverage faculty reflective practice and provide windows into the rich and varied teaching and learning activities that active learning spaces afford. Findings suggest that in ALCs, faculty are easily able to design “activity strings,” multiple active learning activities knitted together within the same instructional period. Further, over time, activity strings become regular occurrences, manifesting as “instructional routines.”