Exploring the Relationship between Teacher Knowledge and Active-Learning Implementation in Large College Biology...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Higher Education Pedagogy

Background:

• Instructor knowledge significantly influences active learning effectiveness.
• Variations in teaching knowledge may explain differences in student outcomes with active learning strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the teaching knowledge instructors utilize during active learning.
• To differentiate the teaching knowledge used in generative versus activity-focused active learning.

Main Methods:

• Employed pre-instruction interviews, video recordings of class sessions, and post-instruction stimulated recall interviews.
• Conducted qualitative content analysis to examine instructor teaching knowledge.
• Focused on instructors in large courses implementing active learning.

Main Results:

• Instructors using generative active learning demonstrated distinct teaching knowledge compared to those using activity-focused active learning.
• Generative instruction involved leveraging pedagogical knowledge for student reasoning and integrating pedagogical content knowledge to address student difficulties.
• Instructors in generative instruction created opportunities to develop pedagogical content knowledge during teaching.

Conclusions:

• Specific teaching knowledge, particularly pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, is crucial for effective generative active learning.
• Hypotheses were generated regarding the essential teaching knowledge for successful generative active learning instruction.