Active learning interventions and student perceptions

Abstract

Purpose Engaging students through active learning is the gold standard of teaching especially in higher education; however, it is not clear whether students appreciate being so engaged. The purpose of this paper is to recount an attempt to redesign a lecture-based course, applying research-supported active learning strategies, and to report on student perceptions of the attempt. Design/methodology/approach The author attempted to innovate a standard lecture-based introductory social science class to engage students and facilitate authentic learning. The active learning innovations were learning by doing, collaboration, reading with a method, and increased autonomy. Student perceptions were measured over two iterations of the course (each one lasting one semester) using electronically distributed surveys. Findings The results have shown that most students strongly agreed that the innovations facilitated their learning; however, overall, the course received a lower student evaluation than versions given in the traditional lecture-based format. Originality/value The results suggest that students appreciate active learning strategies and that such strategies do indeed promote authentic learning; nonetheless, further research needs to be done to explain the paradox of specific student appreciation of active learning strategies combined with an overall less favorable evaluation of the class rooted in such strategies as compared to evaluations of the traditional lecture-based class.

Students’ Perspectives on Engagement, Learning, and Pedagogy: Self-Evaluations of University Students in Spain

“…There is not a single pedagogical method that works better for all students (Bryson & Hand, 2007;Dean & Jolly, 2012), but pedagogy has an important role in bridging between student and course content. Also, our findings do not completely support Lobo's (2017): Most of the students praised the active learning methods and established a positive relation between it and their engagement and learning, but this difference could be related to the fact that our participants were Pedagogy students. Universities should encourage pedagogical innovations that foster student engagement without forgetting that there is not a "one best" pedagogy and, most of all, that students engage differently with different methods; this means that to truly assess student engagement, teachers must accept qualitatively different engaged student positions without ranking them from less to more engaged.…”

“…Also, only four participants established a relation between the amount of effort employed and the expected grades. From our findings, it is not possible to support a hypothesis about the relation between the fees paid and student engagement or a consumerist attitude (Lobo, 2017). Further research in other Spanish public universities would be needed to establish a difference between the HE students' attitude in Spain and other countries.…”

“…In an entertainment model of teaching, education is a product rather than a process (Robinson, 2012). Similarly, in a consumerist model (Lobo, 2017), the teacher is responsible for the student's learning who may remain in a more passive position. The resulting "passive customers" or "consumers to be serviced" attitude has been described (Richards & Richards, 2013;Robinson, 2012;Zepke et al, 2014) in relation to the fees charged by the institutions; increases in fees seem to increase students' expectations as consumers paying for a product, that is, their degree.…”

“…While peer discussion may help understanding new concepts (Smith et al, 2009) and improve student retention in science majors (Watkins & Mazur, 2013), students' resistance to group discussions is well documented and giving them information about their benefits does not seem to change their attitude (Clinton & Kelly, 2017). Also, they may recognize the benefits of an active learning model and still prefer a passive consumerist model of HE (Lobo, 2017).…”

Improving student attitudes toward discussion boards using a brief motivational intervention.

“…Active learning is a pedagogical approach in which students interact with material and peers to promote critical thinking (Shekhar, Prince, Finelli, Demonbrun, & Waters, 2018). Discussion boards would be considered a type of active learning and some students express resistance or dislike of active learning techniques instead preferring to passively listen to lectures (Clinton & Kelly, in-press;Lobo, 2017;Tsang & Harris, 2016;Zayac & Paulk, 2014). For examples, students report that learning from peers is less efficient and more prone to inaccuracy than learning directly from the instructor (Clinton & Wilson, in-press).…”