Time spent on active learning activities does not necessarily correlate with student exam performance: a controlled...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Biology Education

Background:

• Active learning strategies, such as student thinking and classroom discussion, are known to improve learning gains.
• However, the impact of instructor variations in implementing and timing these activities on student performance remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the duration of individual active learning episodes affects student academic performance.
• To test the hypothesis that increased time for peer discussion and individual thinking on practice problems correlates with higher student exam scores.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of classroom recordings and student exam scores from an introductory biology course.
• Comparison of three instructors using identical materials and exams across different course offerings.
• Linear mixed-effects modeling to assess the relationship between active learning episode length and exam scores.

Main Results:

• No significant correlation was found between the total time spent on active learning activities and student performance on associated exam questions.
• Instructor variations in the duration of thinking and discussion episodes did not predict student exam scores.
• This finding persisted even when analyzing specific learning objectives, difficult exam questions, or higher-order thinking questions.

Conclusions:

• The duration of individual active learning episodes may not be the primary driver of positive learning effects.
• Further investigation into other factors influencing the effectiveness of active learning in biology education is warranted.
• Results suggest a need to re-evaluate the emphasis on time allocation for specific active learning components.