Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics
Open Access
- 12 May 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 111 (23), 8410-8415
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111
Abstract
To test the hypothesis that lecturing maximizes learning and course performance, we metaanalyzed 225 studies that reported data on examination scores or failure rates when comparing student performance in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses under traditional lecturing versus active learning. The effect sizes indicate that on average, student performance on examinations and concept inventories increased by 0.47 SDs under active learning (n = 158 studies), and that the odds ratio for failing was 1.95 under traditional lecturing (n = 67 studies). These results indicate that average examination scores improved by about 6% in active learning sections, and that students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5 times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that both results hold across the STEM disciplines, that active learning increases scores on concept inventories more than on course examinations, and that active learning appears effective across all class sizes—although the greatest effects are in small (n ≤ 50) classes. Trim and fill analyses and fail-safe n calculations suggest that the results are not due to publication bias. The results also appear robust to variation in the methodological rigor of the included studies, based on the quality of controls over student quality and instructor identity. This is the largest and most comprehensive metaanalysis of undergraduate STEM education published to date. The results raise questions about the continued use of traditional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teaching practice in regular classrooms.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Increased Course Structure Improves Performance in Introductory BiologyCBE—Life Sciences Education, 2011
- Effects of Collaborative Group Composition and Inquiry Instruction on Reasoning Gains and Achievement in Undergraduate BiologyCBE—Life Sciences Education, 2011
- Just the Facts? Introductory Undergraduate Biology Courses Focus on Low-Level Cognitive SkillsCBE—Life Sciences Education, 2010
- Intraclass Correlation Values for Planning Group-Randomized Trials in EducationEducational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2007
- In Defense of LecturingChange: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 2006
- Reducing the gender gap in the physics classroomAmerican Journal of Physics, 2006
- Scientific TeachingScience, 2004
- Effects of Small-Group Learning on Undergraduates in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology: A Meta-AnalysisReview of Educational Research, 1999
- Talking about Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the SciencesContemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 1997
- The Language and Thought of the ChildThe American Journal of Psychology, 1927