SCALE-UP-Room

Active Learning Space

In both SCALE-UP rooms students are arranged at circular tables seating six (max. seven) students each, so they could work in small groups of two to three students each. Due to the spatial arrangement of the tables without clearly defined front or back of the room, the activities of the students are central to the learning process and the time spent in class. To ensure that all students obtain the relevant information beamer images are projected in different directions of the room.

In addition analogous whiteboards are offered for collaborative work as well as sufficient power outlets on the tables. Moreover a digital poll systems (“clicker”), digital collaborative tools (e.g. “Collaboard”) and for Physics classes “hands-on” experiments or mechanical experiments with digital data acquisition are delivered for each table.

Learning in a SCALE-UP room means for the students not only to listen to the lecturer. Moreover it is a studio-like environment in which they are asked to be active themselves. They have the possibility to discuss in teams, work on challenging tasks on whiteboards or works sheets or go through a peer instruction process. By doing so they continuously receive feedback from their peers and the lecturer. Therefore the room supports a variety of learning activities that allow the students to construct a real “working knowledge” during class time itself. The only variant of teaching that is not well possible in this room is a classical lecture.

Successful learning in a SCALE-UP environment requires that the pure knowledge transfer takes place in advance through a type of Flipped Classroom or Just-in-Time Teaching format. Details how this is done at TH Rosenheim can be read here (in German). 

The role of the lecturer has two different components: on the one hand he or she acts as a provider of information and has to prepare the knowledge content properly for the digital pre-class learning in advance of the presence meeting (books, articles, videos, suitable quiz, …). On the other hand, the teacher does not act as a “sage on the stage” as it is often traditionally the case, but in the role of a coach or “guide on the side”, who controls and moderates the learning process.

⇒ Click here!

In room B0.13, an innovative light concept been realized that has been designed by the Faculty of Interior Architecture, Architecture and Design of the TH Rosenheim. One aspect of the concept is to minimize glare of light from above when using horizontally positioned tablets.

The effectiveness of the SCALE-UP concept, originally developed for physics at North Carolina State University (R. Beichner and colleagues), has been investigated in many different scientific studies. For example, students that learned Physics in a SCALE-UP class had increased problem-solving ability, better conceptual understanding, lower failure rates, and better performance in subsequent engineering courses than students taught in traditional formats (see, e.g., R. Beichner and J. Saul, Proceedings of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi," Varenna, Italy, p. 1, 2003).

The SCALE-UP concepts already exists in different variant in many universities of the world, especially in the U.S. In Germany, more and more universities start to implement this innovative concept.

Engineering students after one semester of physics:

„Well, for me it's two completely different worlds: on the one hand, I just sit there in the lecture hall and listen to the professor, and in the SCALE-UP room I'm active on my own and actively do something to learn something.“

„The professor is not the one who conducts the entire lecture, but for the lecture you are actually responsible yourself.”

„I noticed, that I do not have to do as much follow-up work for the lessons because there's simply more that sticks right from the start and I need less time for follow-up work or for the lessons in general.“

“In the SCALE-UP room students realize immediately that they can and should work together.”

“It is much easier to talk with the students.”

“I cannot lecture a lot, because the students request to work themselves.”

“In total students work more.”

“If I deliver the proper tasks, the lessons works almost without me. The students clarify almost everything by themselves.”

“I have to raise the level a little bit, because the group work is really intense”.

• Beichner, R. J., & Saul, J. M. (2003). Introduction to the SCALE-UP (student-centered activities for large enrollment undergraduate programs) project. Proceedings of the International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi,” Varenna, Italy, 1-17.
• SCALE-UP Handbook Nottingham Trent University

Further SCALE-UP rooms in Germany:

• SCALE-UP Website Ostfalia Hochschule (in German)
• SCALE-UP Website FH Kiel (in German)

• Map of SCALE-UP rooms in Germany

A project of  PRO-Aktjv (Link: www.pro-aktjv.de) in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Humanities as a subproject of HigHRoQ (Link: www.highroq.de).

Contact: claudia.schaefle@th-rosenheim.de