Adopt active learning as the default in regular undergraduate STEM classrooms and shift research away from lecturing controls¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 8 claims (8 for) · 3 studies (2 quant-synthesis, 1 theoretical), q2–q4 · 2 of 3 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Based on the meta-analytic evidence, the authors recommend abandoning traditional lecturing in favor of active learning in regular STEM classrooms, and they question "the continued use of traditional lecturing as a control in research studies." They propose second-generation research using educational psychology and cognitive science to test which type of active learning best suits particular topics or student populations, and combining in-class innovations with required out-of-class exercises.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Faculty support for transforming undergraduate STEM courses, since instructors implementing active learning in the analyzed studies were volunteers

Constraints¶

• The meta-analysis could not evaluate the relationship between the intensity or type of active learning and student performance due to lack of data

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate STEM students
• STEM faculty and course designers

Target Learning Goals¶

• examination and concept-inventory performance
• reduced course failure rates
• STEM retention

Claims¶

• Active learning's performance benefits hold across all STEM disciplines [+M]
• The active-learning advantage is robust to publication bias and to variation in methodological rigor of the included studies [+M]
• Active learning gains are larger on concept inventories than on instructor-written course examinations [+M]
• Active learning raises undergraduate STEM examination and concept-inventory performance by about 0.47 SDs compared with traditional lecturing [+M]
• Active learning benefits students in all class sizes, with the greatest effects in classes of 50 or fewer students [+M]
• Students in traditional lecture STEM courses are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in active-learning courses [+M]
• Active learning narrows the passing-rate gap between minoritized-group and non-minoritized students in undergraduate STEM by 45% on average [+M]
• Active learning reduces the examination-score achievement gap between minoritized-group and non-minoritized students in undergraduate STEM by 33% on average [+M]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H, Wenderoth MP. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS 111(23):8410-8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111