Secondary implementation of interactive engagement teaching techniques: Choices and challenges in a Gulf Arab context

We report on a "Collaborative Workshop Physics" instructional strategy to deliver the first IE calculus-based physics course at Khalifa University, UAE. To these authors' knowledge, this is the first such course on the Arabian Peninsula using PER-based instruction. A brief history of general university and STEM teaching in the UAE is given. We present this secondary implementation (SI) as a case study of a novel context and use it to determine if PER-based instruction can be successfully implemented far from the cultural context of the primary developer and, if so, how might such SIs differ from SIs within the US. With these questions in view, a pre-reform baseline of MPEX, FCI, course exam and English language proficiency data are used to design a hybrid implementation of Cooperative Group Problem Solving. We find that for students with high English proficiency, normalized gain on FCI improves from <g> = 0.16+/-0.10 pre- to <g> = 0.47+/-0.08 post-reform, indicating successful SI. We also find that <g> is strongly modulated by language proficiency and discuss likely causes. Regardless of language skill, problem-solving skill is also improved and course DFW rates drop from 50% to 24%. In particular, we find evidence in post-reform student interviews that prior classroom experiences, and not broader cultural expectations about education, are the more significant cause of expectations at odds with the classroom norms of well-functioning PER-based instruction. This result is evidence that PER-based innovations can be implemented across great changes in cultural context, provided that the method is thoughtfully adapted in anticipation of context and culture-specific student expectations. This case study should be valuable for future reforms at other institutions, both in the Gulf Region and developing world, facing similar challenges involving SI of PER-based instruction outside the US.