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Given that the active learning literature lacks systematic investigations on how the intensity and integration of lecture and active learning affects learning, we conducted two experiments to examine the impact of these variables. The first experiment involved 146 participants who learned about biological taxonomies through pure lecture or pure active learning. Participants in the pure lecture condition scored significantly higher on a posttest than those in the pure active learning condition. The second experiment involved 219 participants who learned about biological taxonomies through pure lecture, a lecture and active learning activity that were interspersed, or a lecture and active learning activity that were blocked. Participants in the interspersed condition scored significantly higher than participants in the blocked and pure lecture conditions (which did not significantly differ). Based on these experiments, it may not be a question of either/or but rather a question of how to integrate lecture and active learning.
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This content will become publicly available on April 24, 2026
Lecture Notes on Random Matrices
These are lecture notes on Random Matrices for the graduate topics course at University of Virginia, Spring 2025. Available at https://lpetrov.cc/rmt25/S25-rmt-lecture-notes.pdf
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- Award ID(s):
- 2153869
- PAR ID:
- 10611289
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- Personal Homepage
- Date Published:
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- Medium: X
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- National Science Foundation
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The effectiveness of the introduction of an educational module to an Introduction to Engineering class was investigated. A lecture introducing nanotechnology was given to the students, and the students participated in a question-and-answer period following the lecture. The “Nanotechnology Awareness Instrument” of Dyehouse et al. was used to assess students' motivation for, awareness of, and exposure to nanotechnology. The survey contained thirty multiple choice questions divided into sections covering nanotechnology awareness, motivation, and exposure. The survey was given to the students prior to the lecture and again five weeks after the lecture. An Ordinal Pattern Analysis in Observation Oriented Modeling was used to evaluate differences in student scores on the Nanotechnology Awareness Instrument after the lecture as compared to their scores before the lecture. It was found that students’ awareness and exposure increased after the lecture, however, their motivation did not increase.more » « less
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