Most active learning comparison studies differ on more than one course feature, limiting attribution of effects to single features¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on a source with no registered publication record (a web page, book or unpublished report). It is kept because 2 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Only 11.9% of the 59 studies had exactly one feature differing between compared conditions, so 79.7% of studies included comparison groups differing on more than one of the 14 course features. → Martella 2021

Evidence¶

Martella 2021¶

Martella, A. M., Lovett, M. C., & Ramsay, L. (2021). Implementing active learning: A critical examination of sources of variation in active learning college science courses. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 32(1), 67-96. https://jlect.com/

q2 · i? · review · r2

Feature-difference analysis across the 59 studies, examining the 14 course features. The review reports "seven of the 59 (11.9%) studies where only one feature differed"; the active learning conditions averaged 5 course features. Descriptive counts only.

"We identified seven of the 59 (11.9%) studies where only one feature differed between/among the conditions and an additional five (8.5%) studies where two of the three conditions being compared had only one difference."

Studies bearing on this claim¶

Is the gain due to the activities or to what else changed with the course format? This table gathers the studies behind this claim and the 2 narrower claims that bear on it: 1 distinct studies (1 review), q2, 0 of 1 with an effect size coded. One row per study, codes as each entry records them; no effect is averaged and no verdict is drawn. Built by scripts/synthesize_claim.py from eval/synthesis/; a row that looks wrong is fixed on the claim it comes from.

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Only a minority of active learning comparison studies include treatment fidelity checks — related
• Game-based learning improved pharmacy students' literature searching course scores in one reported study — related
• Active learning conditions more often include quizzes, homework, and learning/exam preparation than lecture conditions — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Time-on-task is frequently unequal across compared conditions, with active learning conditions typically requiring more home time — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Post-2014 comparison studies still most commonly contrast one active learning condition with one lecture condition — related