Resources

This study found that students in active classrooms learned more (as would be expected based on prior research), but their perception of learning, while positive, was lower than that of their peers in passive environments. This suggests that attempts to evaluate instruction based on students’ perceptions of learning could inadvertently promote inferior (passive) pedagogical methods.

The authors quantified classroom practices and related these to student learning. The most significant positive predictor of learning gains was the use of group work, supporting the findings of previous studies. The authors also found that the addition of worksheets as an active learning tool for in-class group activities had the strongest impact on diagnostic test scores. This particular low-tech activity promotes student collaboration, develops problem solving skills, and can be used to inform the instructor about what students are struggling with, thus providing opportunities for valuable and timely feedback.

This article discusses the importance of considering students’ affective, nonconceptual experiences as they enter biology courses, how these may impact their experiences in classrooms, and how faculty can minimize negative impacts.

Improving How Universities Teach Science draws on Wieman’s unparalleled experience to provide a blueprint for educators seeking sustainable improvements in science teaching.

This study describes student outcomes from an undergraduate chemistry course that implemented a flipped format: a pedagogical model that consists of students watching recorded video lectures outside of the classroom and engaging in problem solving activities during class. The study found that students enrolled in the flipped course reported attending class more often than students in the non-flipped course and after controlling for student-level covariates related to achievement, experienced, on average, a statistically significant increase in their grade in the subsequent chemistry course.

Students in our introductory biology course performed significantly better if they engaged in Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL). There was also a drastic reduction in the failure rate for underrepresented minority (URM) students with PLTL, which further resulted in closing the achievement gap between URM and non-URM students.

This article provides an overview of the findings from Retention and Reform: An Evaluation of Peer-Led Team Learning (2011) in the Journal of Chemical Education.

This study describes an evaluation of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) reform model in first-semester general chemistry.  The evaluation demonstrates that classes implementing the PLTL reform at the setting featured a statistically significant improvement of 15% in the pass rate for the classes, compared to conventional, lecture-only classes at the same setting.

This study shows that a highly structured course design, based on daily and weekly practice with problem-solving, data analysis, and other higher-order cognitive skills, improved the performance of all students in a college-level introductory biology class and reduced the achievement gap between disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged students—without increased expenditures.