ASPECT: A Survey to Assess Student Perspective of Engagement in an Active-Learning Classroom

This paper describes the development and validation of a survey to measure students? self-reported engagement during a wide variety of in-class active-learning exercises. The survey provides researchers and instructors alike with a tool to rapidly evaluate different active-learning strategies from the perspective of the learner

A Biocultural Examination of Student Learning Behaviors in Large Undergraduate Lectures

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08Humans rely on culturally acquired information. Survival and reproductive success often hinge on whether or not individuals are culturally adapted to the environment they live in. These cultural variants can include important local social norms, foraging or hunting techniques, how to construct boats, among countless other examples. Given the importance of culture to human success, the field of Gene Culture Co-evolution suggests that humans have social learning strategies shaped by natural selection to preferentially adopt adaptive cultural variants while avoiding maladaptive ones. These predicted strategies can dictate when, how, and from whom to learn socially, with the fitness benefits of each defined by the state of the environment, the type of information being learned, and attributes of the individuals available to copy. This dissertation empirically examines the social learning behaviors of college students longitudinally throughout a large lecture classroom. The first study examines who students identify as knowledgeable peers; identifying culturally competent individuals is a prerequisite ability to use a payoff-based bias, so students should be particularly attuned to who is doing well around them. Results reveal that students are more likely to be nominated as strong in the course material if they are performing well in the class, indicating a general student ability to know who knowledgeable peers are. However, it is also found that male students overrate their male peers after controlling for performance in the course and participation in class. Potential biological and cultural roots for this gender bias are discussed. Using the perception networks from the first study, the second study examines whether students form learning relationships with peers they previously identified as strong in the material. This would indicate study group formation follows payoff-based biases. This study also tests whether student study groups follow homophily-based biases, a bias both predicted in social learning literature and supported in previous sociological research. These learning biases are supported; students are more likely to study with peers they previously identified as strong in the material, and students of the same ethnicity are also more likely than chance study together. As implied in its name, the use of payoff-based biases is expected to benefit the learner by giving them access to someone who is particularly skilled or knowledgeable. However, no evidence is found that student exam scores increase from having a study partner that was nominated as strong in the material. The last study examines biocultural roots of learning preferences for social or individual learning. Here, social learning is described by passive learning through listening, while individual learning is more exploratory and involves more active work in having the learner self-discover information. Specifically, this study tests for an impact of a well-studied polymorphism of the gene Dopamine Receptor D4 (DRD4). The 2R and 7R alleles of DRD4 show positive selection in human migratory populations despite links to inattention, hyperactivity, different types of risk taking, and sensitivity to local norms and environments. This study lends evidence that these alleles may differentially impact learning preferences of students depending on the ethnic background of the student, suggesting a gene by environment interaction for the formation of learning styles, and a possible role of social learning dynamics to the evolution of DRD4. This dissertation contributes to growing literature empirically testing human learning strategies. It also contributes to a small field of work applying evolutionary thought to improving educational practices, as well as work that examines social networks in classrooms. Thus, this work integrates several fields of research, and represents the value of interdisciplinary work

Investigating how undergraduates process their e-mail inbox

Students receive e-mails from a variety of university sources that include information about courses, policies and procedures, and useful resources or opportunities. However, this information is sent without consideration of whether students have effective strategies to successfully translate it into action. Most research and resources related to undergraduate e-mail use focus on message composition, but limited work centres on how they manage their inbox, a private and unobservable process. Whether students can translate information about opportunities and resources into action has implications for their engagement and involvement on campus and success in their academic program. Thus, understanding how students process their inbox is potentially important for driving student integration and success. We have performed 18 qualitative interviews with undergraduate students regarding how they manage their inbox, including 1) the strategies and processes used, 2) how they learned to process their e-mail, and 3) positive and negative consequences associated with successful or unsuccessful inbox management. We find students vary widely when it comes to e-mail management. However, we find that students’ experiences with e-mail follow Expectancy Value Theory, where the likelihood that a student translates an e-mail into an action is primarily dictated by whether they perceive value in the received message and whether they can take the necessary action (e.g., attend an event, use a resource, pay a late fee, etc.). We find that students vary in their perceptions and abilities to act. Building off this framework, we describe this variation and its implications for student success. This research was approved by our institutional research ethics board REB #22-12-023

Unpacking how undergraduate students form beliefs about undergraduate teaching

While the goal of most undergraduate courses is to teach students disciplinary content, these courses also influence the development of students’ beliefs about teaching and learning. This is noteworthy because students’ beliefs about teaching and learning have short- and long-term consequences. In the short-term, these beliefs dictate student engagement in the classroom, including the extent to which they buy-in to active learning strategies (Cooper et al., 2017). Long-term consequences emerge when one considers that some undergraduate students will someday become university instructors, and their beliefs about teaching and learning will dictate their pedagogical decisions. Thus, we are interested in how classroom experiences influence the development of students’ beliefs about teaching and learning. To this end, we conducted episodic narrative interviews with first- and fourth-year students. In these interviews, students reflect on beliefs about teaching learning and describe experiences that shaped these beliefs. Given the positive impacts of active learning on student learning (Freeman et al., 2014), we focus these interviews on beliefs known to underlie the adoption of active learning strategies. Preliminary results suggest that experiences in undergraduate classrooms do impact the development of beliefs, but this influence is moderated by a students’ academic ‘objectives’ (e.g., grade-focused versus skills-focused). We also find that students’ first experiences with active learning courses can make or break their beliefs surrounding active learning practices. Lastly, we find that students conflate active learning with other curricular components that are independent from active learning. This research was approved by our institutions research ethics board #22-09-003 Cooper, K. M., Ashley, M., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). Using expectancy value theory as a framework to reduce student resistance to active learning: A proof of concept. Journal of microbiology & biology education, 18(2), 18-2. Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415

Student perception of group dynamics predicts individual performance: Comfort and equity matter.

Active learning in college classes and participation in the workforce frequently hinge on small group work. However, group dynamics vary, ranging from equitable collaboration to dysfunctional groups dominated by one individual. To explore how group dynamics impact student learning, we asked students in a large-enrollment university biology class to self-report their experience during in-class group work. Specifically, we asked students whether there was a friend in their group, whether they were comfortable in their group, and whether someone dominated their group. Surveys were administered after students participated in two different types of intentionally constructed group activities: 1) a loosely-structured activity wherein students worked together for an entire class period (termed the 'single-group' activity), or 2) a highly-structured 'jigsaw' activity wherein students first independently mastered different subtopics, then formed new groups to peer-teach their respective subtopics. We measured content mastery by the change in score on identical pre-/post-tests. We then investigated whether activity type or student demographics predicted the likelihood of reporting working with a dominator, being comfortable in their group, or working with a friend. We found that students who more strongly agreed that they worked with a dominator were 17.8% less likely to answer an additional question correct on the 8-question post-test. Similarly, when students were comfortable in their group, content mastery increased by 27.5%. Working with a friend was the single biggest predictor of student comfort, although working with a friend did not impact performance. Finally, we found that students were 67% less likely to agree that someone dominated their group during the jigsaw activities than during the single group activities. We conclude that group activities that rely on positive interdependence, and include turn-taking and have explicit prompts for students to explain their reasoning, such as our jigsaw, can help reduce the negative impact of inequitable groups

Student perception of group dynamics predicts individual performance: Comfort and equity matter

<div><p>Active learning in college classes and participation in the workforce frequently hinge on small group work. However, group dynamics vary, ranging from equitable collaboration to dysfunctional groups dominated by one individual. To explore how group dynamics impact student learning, we asked students in a large-enrollment university biology class to self-report their experience during in-class group work. Specifically, we asked students whether there was a friend in their group, whether they were comfortable in their group, and whether someone dominated their group. Surveys were administered after students participated in two different types of intentionally constructed group activities: 1) a loosely-structured activity wherein students worked together for an entire class period (termed the ‘single-group’ activity), or 2) a highly-structured ‘jigsaw’ activity wherein students first independently mastered different subtopics, then formed new groups to peer-teach their respective subtopics. We measured content mastery by the change in score on identical pre-/post-tests. We then investigated whether activity type or student demographics predicted the likelihood of reporting working with a dominator, being comfortable in their group, or working with a friend. We found that students who more strongly agreed that they worked with a dominator were 17.8% less likely to answer an additional question correct on the 8-question post-test. Similarly, when students were comfortable in their group, content mastery increased by 27.5%. Working with a friend was the single biggest predictor of student comfort, although working with a friend did not impact performance. Finally, we found that students were 67% less likely to agree that someone dominated their group during the jigsaw activities than during the single group activities. We conclude that group activities that rely on positive interdependence, and include turn-taking and have explicit prompts for students to explain their reasoning, such as our jigsaw, can help reduce the negative impact of inequitable groups.</p></div

Raw means showing student performance on the post-test as a function of reporting a dominator, being comfortable in their group, and working with a friend.

<p>A) Controlling for pre-score, students who strongly agree there was a dominator in their group performed worse on the post-score than students who reported low levels of a dominator; B) Controlling for pre-score, students who report being comfortable in their groups score higher on the post-test; C) There is no effect of friend on performance (note that there is a difference in post-score, not controlling for pre-score wherein students who work with a friend score higher on the post-test (t = -2.6, p<0.05); this difference is noticeable in this figure). Error bars indicate standard error. Students answered the dominator and comfort questions on a 6-point Likert scale, from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (6). See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0181336#pone.0181336.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a> for final models and modeled estimates.</p

Questions on the survey and the percentage of responses.

<p>Results are aggregated across all three iterations of the survey, so students’ views are repeated.</p

Final models and associated estimates for predicting students’ performance on the post-test and which students report a dominator, being comfortable, and working with a friend.

<p>Coefficients are presented as odds (transformed from logodds); models were fit as cumulative link mixed models (postscore, dominator, comfort) or logistic regression (friend; see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0181336#sec002" target="_blank">methods</a> for details). Bolded coefficients represent statistical significance to α = 0.05. Grey cells indicate variables that were not included in the full model, empty cells indicate variables that were included in the full model and then were dropped during the model selection process. Superscripted notes indicate starting models and additional notes.</p

Raw means show that a carefully designed jigsaw in-class activity reduced the dominator report rate compared to a single-group activity.

<p>Error bars, which are present but subsumed by the point, indicate standard error. See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0181336#pone.0181336.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a> for final models and modeled estimates.</p