Rock and mineral labs are fundamental in traditional introductory geology courses. Successful implementation of these lab activities provides students opportunities to apply content knowledge. Inquiry-based instruction may be one way to increase student success. Prior examination of published STEM labs indicates that geology labs, particularly…

Introductory psychology students need supports to read and think in a discipline-specific way when learning psychology theories. We tested the effectiveness of using a task-model steps chart to help students understand, evaluate, and use theories presented in their introductory psychology textbook and lecture videos. We randomly assigned 52…

Challenge: Courses like introductory calculus are described as "gatekeeper" classes but are required for students across a variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Real applications of mathematics subjects are known to have a positive effect on student motivation and retention. Considering the broad and…

Background/purpose: The rapid advancement of technology, particularly in mobile learning, presents new opportunities for flexible, accessible education. In business education, especially marketing courses, integrating technology while cultivating essential 21st-century skills like critical thinking and collaboration remains challenging. This study…

Instructors often provide feedback to their class in multiple ways. One way is through their follow-up behaviors, which are the specific strategies instructors implement after active learning activities. These behaviors could play an important role in student learning as students receive feedback from the instructor. However, there is little…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is an active learning strategy which poses questions to students and supplies them with materials and resources to solve it at their own learning pace. This creates a self-driven atmosphere which promotes collaboration, creativity, cognitive processing, and a curiosity to learn. Three levels of IBL were implemented in…

Engineering learners must develop skills to design holistic solutions that take competing and complex economic, environmental, and social factors into account. Yet, these skills are not simply cognitive in nature. To develop holistic solutions, engineering learners must develop their affective attitudes so that they can gain an awareness of…

Climate change is a major concern to undergraduate students. Understanding climate change relies on an understanding of polar regions. However, courses on polar regions are rare at undergraduate institutions. Polar ENgagement through GUided INquiry (PENGUIN) modules were designed to give students experience with polar research in a variety of…

This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of traditional lectures versus active lectures in introductory college biology classes composed of science and non-science majors, a topic of significant importance in the field of education. In a traditional lecture, the researcher used PowerPoint to present class content while answering direct…

'Group work' is a vague description of an instructional activity, because many factors shape its character and effect on students. One important factor is group formation, that is, how groups are formed by the instructor. In this paper, we sought to better understand the variation of group work with respect to group formation by addressing: How do…

Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of modern Earth science, but many university students have misconceptions about it that introductory geoscience classes often fail to correct. We developed a 5-to-12-hour-long hands-on active-learning curriculum for an introductory geoscience class for education majors. The curriculum includes: (1) A…

Students often experience science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses as competitive, weed-out spaces. Learning Assistants (LAs) have potential to improve students' experiences in these courses. Previously, we elucidated themes describing the impact of LAs on students' sense of STEM belonging and science-related confidence in…

Undergraduate biology students describe fear of negative evaluation (FNE), defined as a sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated in a social situation, as negatively affecting their experiences in active learning courses. Yet, few studies have examined who is prone to experiencing FNE, the severity and duration of FNE, and…

We have previously described the reformed introductory physics course, collaborative learning through active sense-making in physics (CLASP), for bioscience students at a large public research one university (Original University) and presented evidence that the course was more successful and more equitable than the course it replaced by several…

Part of learning science is practicing reasoning, but some of the most common approaches to science instruction offer students little opportunity to do that, especially in the whole-class setting of large-enrollment courses. We present and closely examine a single episode of instructor listening--an instructor deliberately adopting a stance, and…