Many studies have demonstrated a superiority of active learning forms compared with traditional lecture. However, there is still debate as to what degree structuring is necessary with regard to high exam outcomes. Seventy-five students from a premedical school were randomly attributed to an active lecture group, a cooperative group, or a…

There was a concern from faculty at Bahrain Teachers' College that undergraduate Bahraini students lack the necessary competencies needed for success in educational contexts that are conducive to active, student-centered learning. It was decided that the students be introduced to a problem-based learning (PBL) strategy in one of their educational…

Understanding the distinctions among heat, energy and temperature can be difficult for students at all levels of instruction, including those in engineering. Misconceptions about heat transfer have been found to persist, even after students successfully complete relevant coursework. New instructional methods are needed to address these…

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Fellows Program at Southeast Missouri State University supports an annual cohort of 10 faculty Fellows to evaluate, through individual research projects, the effect of teaching on student learning of two or more of the university's General Education objectives. Designed around practical action…

New approaches are currently being developed to expose biochemistry and molecular biology undergraduates to a more interactive learning environment. Here, we propose a unique project-based laboratory module, which incorporates exposure to biophysical chemistry approaches to address problems in protein chemistry. Each of the experiments described…

Inquiry does not replace information literacy; it encompasses it. It encourages librarians to consider instructional design beyond information search, retrieval, citation, and use. Inquiry-based learning invites school librarians to step into all aspects of instructional planning, from activating prior knowledge straight through to reflection.…

Six online postings and six one-minute papers were added to an introductory first-year class, forming 5 percent of the final grade, but represented significant intervention in class functioning and amount of active learning. Active learning produced results in student performance beyond the percentage of the final grade it constituted. (Contains 1…

If a picture is worth a thousand words, think about how long it takes your students to read a thousand words. Case studies are effective and stimulating ways to teach a variety of subjects, including the biological sciences. In learning the details of a particular case, students develop skills in both deductive and inductive reasoning, hypothesis…

Two complementary techniques to gauge student understanding and inspire interactive learning in the chemistry classroom are presented. Specifically, this article explores the use of student responses with their thumbs as an alternative to electronic-response systems and complementing these experiences with longer, task-based questions in an…

Institutions of higher education are scrambling to make program changes to improve the quality of learning and assessment of learning in the face of pressure from multiple constituencies. Business educators are incorporating various active learning techniques to enhance learning and application of skills and knowledge to real-world situations.…

This article presents a case study of the authors' experience using the POGIL method in an information literacy (IL) course. We describe our approach to using POGIL and discuss both the instructor and student observations about the experience. The article concludes with recommendations for future uses of POGIL in IL.

This article describes three interconnected strategies to help form the structure of support that you and your students can use to reach both goals simultaneously: performance expectations for students, explicit teaching strategies that support inquiry-based learning, and student metacognition strategies (Thier 2002).

Problem statement: Although there is agreement on the potential of project based learning (PBL) and virtual manipulatives (VMs), their positive impact depends on how they are used. This study was based on supporting the use of online PBL environments and improving the efficacy of the instructional practices in PBL by combining the potentials of…

This is a study to examine Indonesian Christian Teachers' Perceptions of the effectiveness of professional development programs offered by the Association of Christian Schools International Indonesia (ACSI-I) and by the Indonesian National Department of Education. The study was focused on how Indonesian Christian teachers perceived the…

In a previous "EDUCAUSE Quarterly" article, the authors reported the results of quasi-experimental research on the University of Minnesota's (UMN) new, technology-enhanced learning spaces called Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs). That investigation found--after controlling for potentially confounding factors such as instructor,…