Are Faculty Changing? How Reform Frameworks, Sampling Intensities, and Instrument Measures Impact Inferences about Student-Centered Teaching Practices.

Although recent studies have used the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) to make claims about faculty reform, important questions remain: How should COPUS measures be situated within existing reform frameworks? Is there a universal sampling intensity that allows for valid inferences about the frequency of student-centered instruction within a semester or across semesters of a course? These questions were addressed using longitudinal COPUS observations (128 classes, three faculty, 4 years). COPUS behaviors were used to categorize classes into didactic, interactive lecture, or student-centered instructional styles. Sampling intensities (one to 11 classes) were simulated (1000 times) within a course and across semesters.