Active Learning Sociocultural Progression through Adapted Classroom Environments

This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing evidence-based classroom practices to help students embrace their own agency as learners. Practices that promote active learning change the role of the instructor from conveyor of information to facilitator of learning, and the role of the student shifts from passive listener to active constructor of knowledge.

While it is generally accepted that active learning promotes academic success and persistence in STEM courses, there is still much to learn regarding how to shift the mindset of both faculty and students away from deeply institutionalized passive learning practices. This level 1 project in the Engaged Student Learning track of the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program seeks to investigate the role classroom architecture may play in promoting a cultural shift toward active learning practices, particularly in introductory biology, chemistry, and mathematics courses.

This project will track changes in both faculty and student mindset after experiencing STEM courses taught in both traditional classrooms and classroom spaces designed to facilitate active learning. Traditional classroom geometry is focused on the instructor, with students facing a centralized instructor station and/or projector screen. In contrast, a classroom designed to support active learning might seat students in groups facing one another with no central instructor station.

In this project, biology, chemistry, and mathematics instructors will work together to incorporate and improve the use of active learning techniques in both traditional and active learning classrooms throughout this project. Interviews, surveys, and classroom audio and video recordings will be used to investigate the role of classroom architecture on shifting the mindset of both students and faculty toward an active learning approach.

This work will contribute to a broader understanding of how to promote the transition toward active, evidence-based teaching practices in higher education, particularly in small institutions which already feature student-centered institutional culture. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.

Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.