One of the iconic symbols of the collegiate experience is the graying professor pontificating behind a lectern to a massive audience of dreary-eyed students. In fact, 45 percent of faculty at four-year institutions still report "extensive lecturing" as the teaching method used in most of their courses (Hurtado et al., 2012). And yet, over the past few decades a voluminous body of research has emerged demonstrating that the traditional lecture method is far less effective than pedagogies of engagement, mastery learning, and computer-based instruction.This research brief provides a description of effective pedagogies as well as a summary of supporting research. To the extent possible, the literature review in this brief focuses on the results of meta-analyses, which examine the average treatment effect or effect size (ES) over multiple studies. Cohen (1988) offered a set of guidelines for interpreting effect sizes: small = 0.20; medium = 0.50; and large = 0.80. Alternatively, effect sizes can be conceived as the percentile point increase (or decrease) on the outcome measure for the average student who received the "treatment" (e.g., online instruction). Both the effect size and the equivalent number of percentile points are reported. A key foible of the lecture method is that it is based on the erroneous assumption that students learn by passively absorbing information; they are seen as empty vessels that must be filled with the professor's knowledge. Much to the contrary, research in the field of educational psychology has demonstrated that students learn by actively constructing knowledge through the explanation, application, and integration of new concepts (Barkley, 2010). The most prominent pedagogies that actively engage students in the learning process are cooperative learning, problem-based learning, and service-learning.