2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Reducing Student Resistance to Active Learning: Applying Research Results to Faculty Development

Presented at NSF Grantees: Faculty Development 2

Despite the many studies confirming that active learning in STEM classrooms promotes greater retention as well as student learning and engagement, the adoption of active learning by instructors has been surprisingly slow. [1, 2, 3, 4] Instructors experience multiple barriers to implementing active learning, and one of the most common of such barriers is student resistance to active learning. [5, 6, 7] There are, however, effective strategies instructors can use to reduce student resistance. [8, 9, 10] Based on current research, we have designed professional development materials for instructors that are focused on disseminating these strategies in order to increase the successful implementation of active learning in STEM classrooms. In this study, we compare the efficacy of a traditional active learning workshop (AL only) and an extended version of this workshop that also specifically highlights these strategies (AL plus). Through a randomized control trial, we plan to study the way in which these workshops influence instructors’ motivation (value and self-efficacy) to adopt and the actual use of active learning in their classrooms. Further, we will also investigate instructors’ motivation for and use of strategies to reduce student resistance.

At three separate sites, one in the Midwest, South, and West, we are currently recruiting STEM instructors from 2-year and 4-year institutions to participate in our project. At each site, we aim to recruit 75 participants who will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. Group 1 will participate in the AL plus workshop during the summer of 2020, Group 2 will participate in the AL only workshop during the summer of 2020, and Group 3 – the control group – will participate in the AL plus workshop during summer 2021. For all instructors, we will collect baseline data during the winter/spring semester of 2020 and at the time of the workshop for Groups 1 and 2. We will also collect data in the fall semester of 2020, following workshop participation for Groups 1 and 2.

For data collection, we have developed and piloted three instruments to provide triangulation of results: an instructor survey, a student survey, and a classroom observation protocol. The instructor survey will assess instructors’ motivation (e.g., value and self-efficacy) for and, and use of active learning and the associated strategies to reduce student resistance. Students’ perceptions of the former will be measured through the student survey that will also include reports of student resistance to active learning. Thirdly, a classroom observation protocol will be used to evaluate instructors’ use of active learning and strategies to resistance student resistance in addition to student resistance to instructors’ use of active learning. This work-in-progress paper will cover the development of our research methodology and present our research instruments.

[1] Dancy, M., Henderson, C., & Turpen, C. (2016). How faculty learn about and implement research-based instructional strategies: The case of Peer Instruction. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 12(1), 010110.
[2] Gradinscak, M. (2011). Redesigning engineering education for a globalised world. International Journal of the Arts & Sciences, 4(25), 217-225.
[3] Jamieson, L. H., & Lohmann, J. R. (2012). Innovation with Impact: Creating a Culture for Scholarly and Systematic Innovation in Engineering Education. Washington, DC: American Society for Engineering Education.
[4] Stains, M., Harshman, J., Barker, M. K., Chasteen, S. V., Cole, R., DeChenne-Peters S. E., … & Levis-Fitzgerald, M. (2018). Anatomy of STEM teaching in North American universities. Science, 359(6383), 1468-1470
[5] Finelli, C. J., Daly, S. R., & Richardson, K. M. (2014). Bridging the research-to-practice gap: Designing an institutional change plan using local evidence. Journal of Engineering Education, 103(2), 331-361
[6] Henderson, C., & Dancy, M. (2007). Barriers to the use of research-based instructional strategies: The influence of both individual and situational characteristics. Physical Review Special Topics- Physics Education Research, 3(2), 020102-020101 to 020102-020114
[7] Seidel, S. B., & Tanner, K. D. (2013) What if students revolt? – Considering student resistance: Origins, options, and opportunities for investigation. CBE- Life Sciences Education, 12(4), 586-595.
[8] Finelli, C. J., Nguyen, K. A., DeMonbrun, R. M., Borrego, M., Prince, M. J., Husman, J., … Waters, C. K. (2018). Reducing student resistance to active learning: Strategies for instructors. Journal of College Science Teaching, 47(5), 80-91.
[9] Nguyen, K. A., Husman, J., Borrego, M., Shekar, P., Prince, M. J., DeMonbrun, R. M., … Waters, C. K. (2017). Students’ expectations, types of instruction, and instructor strategies predicting student response to active learning. International Journal of Engineering Education, 33(1A), 2-18.
[10] Tharayil, S. A., Borrego, M., Prince, M., Nguyen, K. A., Shekhar, P., Finelli, C. J., & Waters, C. K. (2018). Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning. International Journal of STEM Education, 5(7), 1-16.

Authors

Lea K. Marlor University of Michigan [biography]

Lea Marlor is a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, studying Engineering Education Research. She joined the University of Michigan in Sept 2019.

Previously, she was the Associate Director of Education for the Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science, a NSF-funded Science and Technology Center at the University of California, Berkeley. She managed undergraduate research programs to recruit and retain underrepresented students in science and engineering and also outreach to pre-college students to introduce them to science and engineering career opportunities. Ms. Marlor joined University of California, Berkeley in 2013. She has a B.S. in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Cynthia J. Finelli http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9148-1492 University of Michigan [biography]

Dr. Cynthia Finelli is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Professor of Education, and Director and Graduate Chair of the Engineering Education Research Program at University of Michigan (U-M). Dr. Finelli is a fellow in the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE), and she has served as deputy editor for the Journal for Engineering Education, associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Education, and chair of the Educational Research and Methods Division of ASEE. She founded the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering at U-M in 2003 and served as its Director for 12 years. Prior to joining U-M, Dr. Finelli was the Richard L. Terrell Professor of Excellence in Teaching, founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Kettering University.

Dr. Finelli's current research interests include student resistance to active learning, faculty adoption of evidence-based teaching practices, and the use of technology and innovative pedagogies on student learning and success. She also led a project to develop a taxonomy for the field of engineering education research, and she was part of a team that studied ethical decision-making in engineering students.
Madison E. Andrews http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9653-9785 University of Texas at Austin [biography]

Madison Andrews is a STEM Education doctoral student, Mechanical Engineering master’s student, and graduate research assistant for the Center for Engineering Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University in 2017.
Ms. Bobbie Bermudez University of Oregon
Dr. Maura Borrego http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7131-4611 University of Texas at Austin [biography]

Maura Borrego is Director of the Center for Engineering Education and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Borrego is Senior Associaate Editor for Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. She previously served as Deputy Editor for Journal of Engineering Education, a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, on the board of the American Society for Engineering Education, and as an associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate programs. Her research awards include U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and two outstanding publication awards from the American Educational Research Association for her journal articles. All of Dr. Borrego’s degrees are in Materials Science and Engineering. Her M.S. and Ph.D. are from Stanford University, and her B.S. is from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Laura J. Carroll University of Michigan
Nicholette Marie DeRosia University of Oregon
Dr. Matthew Charles Graham
Dr. Jenefer Husman University of Oregon [biography]

Jenefer Husman received a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, in 1998. She served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama from 1998 to 2002, when she moved to Arizona State University. In 2008 she was promoted by ASU to Associate Professor. She is currently a Professor in the Education Studies Department at the University of Oregon. Dr. Husman served as the Director of Education for the Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technology Center - an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center from 2011-2016. Dr. Husman is an assistant editor of the Journal of Engineering Education, and is a member of the editorial board of Learning and Instruction. In 2006 she was awarded the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER grant award and received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the President of the United States. She has conducted and advised on educational research projects and grants in both the public and private sectors, and served as an external reviewer for doctoral dissertations outside the U.S. She publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals and books. Dr. Husman was a founding member and first President of the Southwest Consortium for Innovative Psychology in Education and has held both elected and appointed offices in the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Motivation Special Interest Group of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.
Dr. Michael J. Prince Bucknell University [biography]

Dr. Michael Prince is a professor of chemical engineering at Bucknell University and co-director of the National Effective Teaching Institute. His research examines a range of engineering education topics, including how to assess and repair student misconceptions and how to increase the adoption of research-based instructional strategies by college instructors and corporate trainers. He is actively engaged in presenting workshops on instructional design to both academic and corporate instructors.

Download paper (275 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session

For those interested in:

engineering
Faculty