Skip the clicker: A narrative inquiry of a professor’s ‘Teaching Toolbox’ for large class sizes

This full research paper uses narrative inquiry to examine the emergent `Teaching Toolbox' of a faculty member in an electrical and computer engineering department amid the backdrop of increasing class sizes. Four years ago, this ECE department received an NSF RED grant (Revolutionizing Engineering Departments) to enact large-scale curricular and culture change in the department over five years. The work under the grant has uncovered faculty-driven pedagogies that had formerly been at the periphery of the values held by the department - but did not receive much attention prior to the award. We use narrative inquiry to investigate the experiences of one electrical and computer engineering professor through a single case study. Our case study comprises multiple reflexive interviews contextualized within the history of the department through institutional documents and department meeting notes. This work is focused on the emergent pedagogical innovations one professor has enacted to [at least] maintain, [at most] improve, class engagement and participation as class sizes have increased. These pedagogical innovations reveal the multiple ways in which a professor has adapted their teaching practice to the institutional and departmental changes brought on in the past decade.