Implementing an Active Learning Approach in an Educational Psychology Course

• In Event: Teaching Educational Psychology: From What We Know to How We Teach

Abstract

The Active Learning Classroom (ALC) is a new approach designed to improve learning outcomes in higher education. While past styles of higher education courses, especially in the sciences, tended to be primarily lecture-based, activity-based learning strives to incorporate all components of the course (lecture and lab) into a single studio-style class. The purpose of this study is to expand the research on ACL to a non-science subject where a separate lab is not typically utilized, in this case, an undergraduate Educational Psychology class. Exam scores from two lecture classes and one ALC class were compared. No differences were found between the means or variances between the two classes. Future research is recommended to explore other social science courses.

Authors

• LaShelle Morrison, University of Iowa

• Joyce L. Moore, University of Iowa