Fidelity of implementation: Measuring the extent to which instructors adapt established active learning methods

Various active learning methods have been developed for introductory physics, and these methods are increasingly being adopted by instructors “at large”. Instructors often do not implement developed methods exactly as was originally designed by developers. Adopters, for example, face issues related to funding and institutional support that would facilitate their use of active learning. They likely also have different class sizes and physical classrooms than the original developers. Yet, little is known on what comprises critical components (i.e., components without which the active learning method can not be said to have been implemented) of these established active learning methods and the extent to which instructors “at large” implement these critical components. In this study, we identify the critical components of three named active learning methods: SCALE-UP, ISLE, and Tutorials. We then evaluate the fidelity with which 17 different introductory physics instructors implement these methods by comparing classroom observations of their courses to those of high fidelity implementations. We find across all three active learning methods that instructors at large spend similar amounts of class time on the critical components as the high-fidelity implementations. At the same time, we observe substantial deviations in the specific ways instructors at large implement these activities (e.g., a few long activities versus many short activities) compared to high-fidelity implementations.