Active Learning Instructional Strategy Research Articles

Learning problem solving to manage school-life challenges: The impact on student success in college

Colleges and universities have implemented a broad range of initiatives to support student success. Problem solving courses and course supplements are one approach. Evaluation of these courses has shown positive outcomes in terms of improved academic performance and other benefits. A number of these studies have also reported the largest positive effects with underperforming student groups. To further explore this approach a novel general education academic success course was developed. The course integrated a comprehensive problem-solving model into lectures and assignments as the basis of an active learning instructional strategy. Students were taught the model along with relevant academic skills content. They then applied the model to a personal challenge affecting their success in school and life. Using a matched cohort design, 826 course participants were compared with a campus-wide sample matched on key variables. Generalized linear models were used to estimate between group mean differences, and a Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare time to graduation. Results showed that students who successfully completed the course achieved higher cumulative GPAs overall compared with matched peers. Highest GPAs for students who took the course as freshmen suggested a transfer of knowledge over time. Results also showed that the course significantly benefited students from historically at-risk populations in terms of higher GPAs, units earned, retention, and graduation rates. This study shows that a well designed problem solving course can help students, especially those who struggle academically, to more effectively meet the challenges of college and daily life.

Application of the cognitive load theory in prelicensure nursing education: a quantitative measurement focusing on instructional design.

The objective of this study was to examine differences in principles from the cognitive load theory (CLT) combined with active learning strategies. To examine these differences, simple to complex activities were imbedded into two active learning instructional strategies: cooperative learning (CPL) and problem-based learning (PBL) and evaluated for its impact on mental effort for learning and intrinsic cognitive load. Atwo-within repeated-measures design was used in a nursing fundamentals classroom. The simple and complex activities were grounded in recommendations from the CLT and validated by nurse experts. The instructional strategies of CPL and PBL were chosen based on recommendations from the literature. Results revealed no statistically significant differences. A small interaction showed a decrease in mental effort and intrinsic load when problem-based learning was used. Progressing learning activities from simple to complex, informed by the CLT, offers an approach to designing instruction in nursing classrooms when using active learning strategies.

Introducing Pre-Service Math and Biology Teachers to Physics PCK

ABSTRACT This work reports a classroom experience of a general physics course designed to foster also the initiation of preservice mathematics and biology teachers to physics pedagogical content knowledge. To modify the conceptions that these students have about teaching and learning, the course was taught using different active learning instructional strategies, making at the same time students explicitly aware of their names, objectives, and main characteristics. Degree of knowledge and value of specific active learning activities by these students were measured with three opinion surveys answered by students at the same time they took the three written exams necessary to pass the course. Learning of physics principles was monitored by pre and post instruction application of a general physics multiple-choice test. Results indicate that these students were not only able to identify all teaching strategies but that they value them very highly, with more than 80% of the answers distributed in the two highest rating categories. Opinion and value of the small group work were also very high, increasing with time along the course. When asked to sketch a plan to teach 11th-grade students a physics topic covered in that part of the course, almost all participants proposed to use active learning activities as well as different information and communication technologies. It was also found that conceptual learning of the physics subjects covered in this course was quite satisfactory with high normalized gains, characteristics of active learning instruction. Further work is suggested to confirm these results with appropriate experiments.

Instructors’ Rationales and Strategies for Teaching History of Science in Preservice Settings

This multiple-case study examined the rationales and instructional strategies for teaching history of science (HOS) of 16 instructors of a history of science course for undergraduate preservice teachers in the USA. Based on instructor syllabi, instructional materials, and instructor interviews, we conducted single-case and cross-case analyses to identify why they teach HOS (rationales), how they teach HOS (instructional strategies), and what possible relationships might underlie instructor rationales and their instructional strategy choices for teaching HOS. We found 10 rationales in three overarching categories (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) and 9 active-learning instructional strategies. Moreover, we found that instructors with skills rationales implemented active-learning instructional strategies, whereas instructors who only cited knowledge rationales relied only on lectures and reading discussions. We discuss implications and recommendations for the design of HOS courses.

Will my student evaluations decrease if I adopt an active learning instructional strategy?

College instructors are often afraid to use active learning instructional strategies because they fear that students may complain and/or give them lower evaluations of teaching. In this paper, we present data from a survey of 431 physics instructors who had attended the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop and who attempted to incorporate active learning into their introductory course. Nearly half of respondents (48%) felt that their student evaluations increased, one-third (32%) felt that their student evaluations had not been impacted, and one-fifth (20%) felt that their student evaluations decreased. Thus, contrary to common fears, for these instructors the most likely result from the incorporation of active learning was an increase in student evaluations.

What Types of Instructional Shifts Do Students Experience? Investigating Active Learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Classes across Key Transition Points from Middle School to the University Level

Despite the need for a strong Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce, there is a high attrition rate for students who intend to complete undergraduate majors in these disciplines. Students who leave STEM degree programs often cite uninspiring instruction in introductory courses, including traditional lecturing, as a reason. While undergraduate courses play a critical role in STEM retention, little is understood about the instructional transitions students encounter upon moving from secondary to post-secondary STEM courses. This study compares classroom observation data collected using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) from over 450 middle school, high school, introductory-level university, and advanced-level university classes across STEM disciplines. We find similarities between middle school and high school classroom instruction, which are characterized by a large proportion of time spent on active-learning instructional strategies, such as small-group activities and peer discussion. In contrast, introductory and advanced university instructors devote more time to instructor-centered teaching strategies, such as lecturing. These instructor-centered teaching strategies are present in classes regardless of class enrollment size, class period length, or whether or not the class includes a separate laboratory section. Middle school, high school, and university instructors were also surveyed about their views of what STEM instructional practices are most common at each educational level and asked to provide an explanation of those perceptions. Instructors from all levels struggled to predict the level of lecturing practices and often expressed uncertainty about what instruction looks like at levels other than their own. These findings suggest that more opportunities need to be created for instructors across multiple levels of the education system to share their active learning teaching practices and discuss the transitions students are making between different educational levels.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI)

The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) developed a statewide initiative to improve mathematics and science teaching and student achievement in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12). The Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) is a two-year intervention intended to better align classroom practices with national and statewide teaching standards — and ultimately to improve student achievement — by providing PD, access to materials and technology, and in-school support for teachers.AMSTI, a schoolwide intervention, was introduced in 20 schools in 2002. Each year since then, the state has rolled out the program to additional schools within its 11 regions. By 2009, about 40% of the state’s 1,518 schools were designated as AMSTI schools. Funding for the program from the state legislature was $46 million in 2009.Given the policy relevance and level of investment in AMSTI, the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast mounted a longitudinal, cluster randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of AMSTI in grades 4-8, as implemented in five regions in the state. Previous evaluations of the program’s effects on students in K-12 did not use randomized controlled trials. The most recent evaluation (Miron & Maxwell 2007) reported that students in grade 5 in AMSTI schools outperformed students in non-AMSTI schools in math, science, and reading and students in grade 4 in AMSTI schools outperformed their counterparts in non-AMSTI schools in reading only. These evaluations used a study design that compared school-level test scores of AMSTI schools with non-AMSTI schools in the same district but did not establish preintervention comparability. This study’s RCT design improves on previous evaluations because it eliminates selection bias and establishes the preintervention comparability of the two groups.The effect of AMSTI on student achievement in math after one year, as measured by end-of-the-year scores on the Stanford Achievement Test Tenth Edition (SAT 10) math problem solving assessment of students in grades 4–8, was 2.06 scale score units. The difference of 0.05 standard deviation in favor of AMSTI schools is equivalent to a gain of 2 percentile points on the SAT 10 math problem solving assessment for the average control group student had the student received AMSTI. The 0.05 standard deviation is statistically significant but smaller than the effect the research team believed would be detectable by the experiment as designed. Whether this size effect is educationally important is an open question. It may be useful to convert this effect into a more policy-relevant metric — additional student progress measured in days of instruction. In these terms, the average estimated effect of AMSTI was equivalent to 28 days of additional student progress over students receiving conventional math instruction. The effect of AMSTI on student achievement in science, as measured by end-of-the-year scores on the SAT 10 science assessment, required only in grades 5 and 7, was not statistically significant after one year.AMSTI had a positive and statistically significant effect on classroom practices in math and science after one year. Based on multiple surveys in which teachers reported the number of minutes of active learning strategies used during the previous 10-day period, AMSTI math teachers averaged 49.83 more minutes, and AMSTI science teachers averaged 40.07 more minutes than control teachers. These estimated effects are equivalent to 0.47 standard deviation in math and 0.32 standard deviation in science. Although teachers in both the AMSTI and control groups reported using active learning instructional strategies, teachers in AMSTI schools reported spending more time engaged in this type of instruction.The exploratory investigation of the two-year effect of AMSTI on student achievement in science also found a statistically significant result, with a magnitude of 4.00 scale score units. This effect represents a difference of 0.13 standard deviation in favor of AMSTI schools, equivalent to a gain of 5 percentile points for the average control group student had the student received AMSTI for two years.The effect of AMSTI on teacher-reported content knowledge after one year was not statistically significant in either math or science. AMSTI did have a positive and statistically significant effect on student engagement after one year, measured on a 5-point scale ranging from “not engaged” to “fully engaged.” AMSTI teachers were more likely than control teachers to rate their students as achieving higher levels of engagement.An exploration of the differential effects of AMSTI on student achievement for subgroups of students found no statistically significant differential effects on student achievement in mathematics or science based on racial/ethnic minority status, eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, gender, or pretest level. In reading, however, AMSTI had a statistically significant differential effect for minority and White students of 3.04 scale score points (p

The Effects of Using Academic Role-Playing in a Teacher Education Service-Learning Course

Academic role-playing is one of the more effective active-learning instructional strategies currently being used at the American university level in the preparation of future educators. This mixed methods study is an investigation of the use of role-play in an undergraduate university course designed to prepare students to become public school coaches and physical education teachers. The five original vignettes that were role-played were specifically written to prepare the students to successfully handle situations they might reasonably encounter in their future work. The role-play model used in the research was originally created by the Shaftels in the 1960s, but several creative variations devised by the current investigators were added to that model for this study causing it to be an adapted version. Data collected included questionnaire responses from two different questionnaires, information from a focus group, and observations by the two investigators. Investigators concluded that the students not only exhibited skill in the techniques used to resolve the issues in the vignettes, but that students gained confidence the more they participated in the role-plays which occurred over a 4-week period. The students themselves reported that learning from one’s peers, trying out their ideas in a safe environment, being forced to plan an intended outcome in advance, and hearing feedback from others were their most valued experiences. They also overwhelmingly reported preferring role-play to the more traditional university lecture method.

Team‐Based Learning in a Preclinical Removable Denture Prosthesis Module in a United Arab Emirates Dental School

The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of a team-based learning (TBL) approach in a removable denture prosthesis (RDP) module and present the results of students' performance in individual and group TBL activities and exam scores, students' experience with TBL and end of course evaluations, and faculty feedback. Course material at the College of Dentistry, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, was transformed into seven conventional lectures and seven TBL sessions. Each TBL session consisted of pre-assigned reading (self-directed learning), in-class individual and group readiness tests (accountability), team problem-solving of patient RDP cases, and faculty-led class discussion (knowledge application). The course was assessed through scores from TBL session activities and course examinations, student satisfaction survey, and faculty feedback. Course grades were found to be higher using the TBL method then the traditional lecture-based method. Student evaluation data and faculty response indicated strong support for TBL as it was implemented in the course. The faculty noted a higher level of student engagement with team learning than in conventional class lecturing. TBL is an active-learning instructional strategy for courses with high student-to-faculty ratios. This approach provides regular feedback and the opportunity for students to develop higher reasoning skills.

Resource Letter ALIP–1: Active-Learning Instruction in Physics

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on research-based active-learning instruction in physics. These are instructional methods that are based on, assessed by, and validated through research on the teaching and learning of physics. They involve students in their own learning more deeply and more intensely than does traditional instruction, particularly during class time. The instructional methods and supporting body of research reviewed here offer potential for significantly improved learning in comparison to traditional lecture-based methods of college and university physics instruction. We begin with an introduction to the history of active learning in physics in the United States, and then discuss some methods for and outcomes of assessing pedagogical effectiveness. We enumerate and describe common characteristics of successful active-learning instructional strategies in physics. We then discuss a range of methods for introducing active-learning instruction in physics and provide references to those methods for which there is published documentation of student learning gains.

Active Learning to Improve Fifth Grade Mathematics Achievement in Banten

Teaching for active learning is a pedagogical technique that has been actively promoted in Indonesian education through government reform efforts and international development assistance projects for decades. Recently, elementary schools in Banten province received training in active learning instructional strategies from the USAID-funded project, Decentralized Basic Education 2. Post-training evaluations conducted by lecturers from the University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (UNTIRTA: Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa) suggested that teachers were successfully employing active learning strategies in some subjects, but not mathematics. In order to understand the difficulties teachers were having in teaching for active learning in mathematics, and to assist them in using active learning strategies, a team of lecturers from UNTIRTA designed and carried out an action research project to train teachers in an elementary school in the city of Cilegon to use a technique called Magic Fingers in teaching Grade 5 multiplication. During the course of the project the research team discovered that teachers were having problems transferring knowledge gained from training in one context and subject to other school subjects and contexts. Key Words: Mathematics, Teaching for Active Learning, Indonesia, Banten

Utilizing Web Tools for Computer-Mediated Communication to Enhance Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning is an active learning instructional strategy used in the traditional face-to-face classroom. Web-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools complement the face-to-face classroom and enable active learning between face-to-face class times. This arti-cle presents the results from pilot assessments of computer-supported team-based learning. The authors utilized pedagogical approaches grounded in collaborative learning techniques, such as team-based learning, and extended these techniques to a Web-based environment through the use of computer-mediated communications tools (discussion Web-boards). This approach was examined through field studies in the course of two semesters at a US public technological university. The findings indicate that the perceptions of team learning experience such as per-ceived motivation, enjoyment, and learning in such a Web-based CMC environment are higher than in traditional face-to-face courses. In addition, our results show that perceived team mem-bers’ contributions impact individual learning experiences. Overall, Web-based CMC tools are found to effectively facilitate team interactions and achieve higher-level learning.

FIRST—What's Next?

FIRST—What's Next?