Silent Students in the Active Learning Classroom

Obenland, Carrie A.; Munson, Ashlyn H.; Hutchinson, J.M.R.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-33600-4_17

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In this study, we examined students’ reported comfort with two common classroom engagement practices: asking questions of instructors and answering instructor-posed questions in front of the whole class. While allowing students the opportunity to voluntarily ask and answer questions has been found to be both a common ( 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 ) and beneficial ( 5 , 8 ) undergraduate teaching practice, we were surprised to find that more than half of undergraduate science students feel uncomfortable both asking and answering instructor questions. An important distinction is that even though the practices of inviting students to voluntarily ask and answer questions are present in many college courses, only a subset of students choose to participate in these practices ( 30 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Presenting students with the opportunity to voluntarily ask and answer questions is a common practice employed by college science instructors of both small- and large-enrollment courses ( 1 – 5 ). Having students ask and answer questions in front of the whole class can give the instructor an idea of whether students are grasping the content and can help indicate whether the instructor should move on to the next concept or spend more time helping students learn the current content ( 6 , 7 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Gender Differences in Student Comfort Voluntarily Asking and Answering Questions in Large-Enrollment College Science Courses

Nadile

Williams

Wiesenthal

et al. 2021

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Differences in Student Comfort Voluntarily Asking and Answering Questions in Large-Enrollment College Science Courses

Nadile

Williams

Wiesenthal

et al. 2021

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The maladaptive coping strategy most commonly used to deal with an instructor asking for a volunteer to answer a question was to avoid eye contact/ not raise your hand. A prior study has shown that students self-report learning from instructor questioning even if they do not answer the question themselves [58], but assessments indicate that silent students learn less than their more vocal peers [59]. Students who coped with another strategy (positive self-talk before raising their hand) might have an academic advantage because they would either get their answer confirmed (boosting self-confidence) or have a misconception clarified by the instructor.…”

Section: Students Use Mostly Adaptive Coping Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do undergraduates cope with anxiety resulting from active learning practices in introductory biology?

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Active learning pedagogies decrease failure rates in undergraduate introductory biology courses, but these practices also cause anxiety for some students. Classroom anxiety can impact student learning and has been associated with decreased student retention in the major, but little is known about how students cope with anxiety caused by active learning practices. In this study, we investigated student coping strategies for various types of active learning (clickers, volunteering to answer a question, cold calling, and group work) that were used in 13 introductory Biology courses at a large public university in 2016-2017. A survey asked students to rate their anxiety regarding the four active learning practices and over half of the students explained the coping strategies they used to manage their active learning anxieties. Coping responses from 880 students were sorted into pre-defined categories of coping strategies: problem solving, information seeking, self-reliance, support seeking, accommodation, helplessness, escape, delegation, and isolation. We found that a different category of coping was dominant for each type of active learning. The dominant coping strategies for anxiety associated with clickers, cold calling, and group work were adaptive coping strategies of information seeking, self-reliance, and support-seeking, respectively. The dominant coping strategy for volunteering to answer a question was escape, which is a maladaptive strategy. This study provides a detailed exploration of student self-reported coping in response to active learning practices and suggests several areas that could be foci for future psychosocial interventions to bolster student regulation of their emotions in response to these new classroom practices.

show abstract

“…Eliciting student participation by giving students the opportunity to ask or answer questions in front of the whole class is a common way for instructors to engage students in the college science classroom [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Sometimes dubbed the "Socratic method" of teaching, studies have shown that encouraging students to ask and answer questions is frequently employed in both small-enrollment and large-enrollment college courses [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. Despite the near ubiquitous nature of giving students the opportunity to voluntarily ask and answer questions in front of the class, there are few studies that have examined the benefits of this type of participation specifically in the context of college science courses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Call on me! Undergraduates’ perceptions of voluntarily asking and answering questions in front of large‐enrollment science classes

Nadile

Cooper

2021

FASEB j.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Allowing students to voluntarily ask and answer questions in front of the whole class is a common teaching practice used in college science courses. However, few studies have examined college science students’ perceptions of this practice, the extent to which students choose to engage in this practice, and what discourages students from participating. In this study, our research questions were: (1) To what extent do students perceive that instructors allowing students to ask and answer questions in front of the whole class is helpful to them and why? (2) To what extent do students report asking and answering questions in front of large‐enrollment college science courses? (3) What factors discourage students from asking and answering questions in front of large‐enrollment science courses? and (4) To what extent do student demographics predict whether students perceive asking and answering questions to be helpful and the factors that discourage them from participating? This study was conducted by 19 students enrolled in a course‐based undergraduate research experience (CURE) at the University of Central Florida. The study built upon a pilot interview study of 50 undergraduates about their experiences asking and answering questions in science courses, which was used to develop a framework of factors that influenced student participation in class. This framework informed the development of the survey for this study. To answer our research questions, we surveyed 417 undergraduates at a research‐intensive institution about their experiences asking and answering questions in large‐enrollment college science courses. Using binary logistic regression, we examined whether there were differences among students of different demographic groups regarding their opinions about asking and answering questions. We found that overwhelmingly students reported that other students voluntarily asking and answering instructor questions is helpful to them. Notably, compared to continuing generation students, first generation students were more likely to perceive other students asking questions to be helpful. Despite perceiving asking and answering questions to be helpful, over half of students reported that they never ask or answer questions in large‐enrollment college science courses during a semester, and women were more likely than men to report never asking questions. We identified fear of negative evaluation, or students’ sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated, as a primary factor influencing their decision to answer instructor questions. This work adds to a growing body of literature on student participation in large‐enrollment college science courses and begins to uncover underlying factors influencing student participation.

show abstract

Silent Students in the Active Learning Classroom

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Gender Differences in Student Comfort Voluntarily Asking and Answering Questions in Large-Enrollment College Science Courses

Gender Differences in Student Comfort Voluntarily Asking and Answering Questions in Large-Enrollment College Science Courses

How do undergraduates cope with anxiety resulting from active learning practices in introductory biology?

Call on me! Undergraduates’ perceptions of voluntarily asking and answering questions in front of large‐enrollment science classes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About