Meeting Abstract

92.2  Sunday, Jan. 6  Successes and pitfalls in the inversion of a large enrollment major’s Evolutionary Biology course VONWETTBERG, E.J.B.; Florida International University ericvonwettberg@yahoo.com

Creating learner-centered classrooms through the inversion of instruction has the potential to create more engaged students and improve student achievement at a time of rising enrollments and cutbacks. I examine the deployment of several strategies, including Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) and peer Learning Assistants (LA), research-focused case-studies, and electronic clickers in a large enrollment upper-division majors course in Evolutionary Biology at a minority serving university. Although I find some improvement in student performance on test materials following the adaption of PLTL, LAs, case studies, and iclickers, the gains are limited. Student feedback suggests that improved PLTL leader and LA training, and better web-based materials may further improve student performance.