In addition to providing evidence that active learning can
improve undergraduate STEM education, the results reported
here have important implications for future research. The studies
we metaanalyzed represent the first-generation of work on undergraduate
STEM education, where researchers contrasted a
diverse array of active learning approaches and intensities with
traditional lecturing. Given our results, it is reasonable to raise
concerns about the continued use of traditional lecturing as a
control in future experiments. Instead, it may be more productive
to focus on what we call “second-generation research”:
using advances in educational psychology and cognitive science
to inspire changes in course design (23, 24), then testing hypotheses
about which type of active learning is most appropriate
and efficient for certain topics or student populations (25).
Second-generation research could also explore which aspects of
instructor behavior are most important for achieving the greatest
gains with active learning, and elaborate on recent work indicating
that underprepared and underrepresented students may
benefit most from active methods. In addition, it will be important
to address questions about the intensity of active learning:
Is more always better? Although the time devoted to active
learning was highly variable in the studies analyzed here, ranging
from just 10–15% of class time being devoted to clicker questions
to lecture-free “studio” environments, we were not able to evaluate
the relationship between the intensity (or type) of active learning
and student performance, due to lack of data (SI Materials
and Methods).