| The goal of this dissertation is to broaden our understanding of interactive teaching strategies, in the context of the introductory physics classroom at the undergraduate level. The dissertation is divided into four main projects, each of which investigates a specific aspect of teaching physics interactively. All four projects look towards improving the effectiveness of interactive teaching by understanding how pre-course student characteristics affect the way students learn interactively.;We first discuss lecture demonstrations in the context of an interactive classroom using Peer Instruction. We study the role of predictions in conceptual learning. We examine how students' predictions affect what they report having seen during a demonstration. We also examine how student predictions affect what they recall as the outcome of the demonstration at the end of the semester.;We then analyze student response patterns to conceptual questions posed during Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between a student's tendency to switch their answer and pre-course student characteristics like science self-efficacy.;Next we elucidate response timing to conceptual questions posed over the course of the semester, in two introductory physics classes taught using Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between student response times and student characteristics like pre-course physics knowledge, science self-efficacy and gender. We study response times as a way of gaining insight into students thinking in Peer Instruction environments as well as to improve the implementation of Peer Instruction.;Finally, we present work on the role of NB, an online collaborative textbook annotation tool, in a flipped, project based, physics class. We analyze the relationship between students' level of online engagement and traditional learning metrics to understand the effectiveness of NB in the context of flipped classrooms. We also report the results of experiments conducted to explore ways to steer discussion forums to produce high-quality learning interactions. |
