Use Active Learning

Active learning is a process through which students actively engage-with and reflect-upon course content.  It has been shown to increase learning (Deslauriers et al., 2019; S. Freeman et al., 2014), improve attitudes and perceptions about science (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021), and reduce the achievement gap for underrepresented minorities (S. Freeman et al., 2014) and women (Lorenzo et al., 2006). Active learning was shown to reduce the achievement gaps between minoritized groups in STEM (MGS, includes both AHN and low-GWI students) and non-MGS students; high-intensity active learning reduced gaps in exam scores and passing rates by 33% and 45% respectively (Theobald et al., 2020). These AHN performance gains are driven by increased student self-efficacy (Ballen et al., 2017). Active learning is particularly effective when students perceive that it is improving their learning (Downing et al., 2020).

In addition to lowering the achievement gap, active learning can increase or decrease student anxiety (Downing et al., 2020). Active learning can increase or decrease student anxiety. Active learning can decrease anxiety because it provides students with additional help from peers and instructors, and it provides different learning modalities. Active learning can also increase anxiety by intensifying student fears about negative evaluation, especially on topics they are struggling with. This occurs because the fear of looking stupid in front of peers increases students’ mental load and thus decreases their performance. Instructors can reduce anxiety associated with active learning by keeping students in consistent groups where they know their peers, and by reducing cold-calling.

Most active learning exercises involve calling on individual students or groups to voice their answers or ideas. When calling on students, instructors should attempt to hear from a diverse array of voices, including those from different racial or ethnic backgrounds and from different genders. One strategy is to wait to see at least five raised hands before calling on a student (Reinholz et al., 2020). When students readily participate instructors should reward their efforts by showing appreciation and enthusiasm. By encouraging class participation and discourse, instructors can increase students’ understanding of the course content (Chi et al., 1994; Trujillo et al., 2016), their sense of identity (Boaler & Greeno, 2000) and belonging within the discipline (Le, 2019; Lewis et al., 2016).

Faculty who are new to active learning should recognize that they may not see big changes in student outcomes right away. Instead, they should gradually redesign their courses to include more evidence-based active learning strategies which are tailored to both their courses and their students. Instructors should monitor student progress and keep making incremental changes and improvements until the achievement gaps are eliminated (Theobald et al., 2020).

Interest and Motivation

Instructors can increase interest and motivation among their underrepresented students in several ways. First and foremost, instructors should reduce or eliminate factors that have been shown to decrease student motivation such as fixed-mindset beliefs and stereotype threat. In addition to avoiding motivation decreases, instructors can disproportionately motivate underrepresented groups by paying attention to what interests them. Instructors can increase interest for all students by showing how the coursework relates to real-life (Dewbury & Brame, 2019); this is particularly beneficial to AHNs and low-performing students who are often very practically minded and value material they feel will be useful to them later (e.g., utility value) (Harackiewicz & Hulleman, 2010; Sanchez, 2000). The utility value of a task positively correlates with interest among historically disadvantaged or underrepresented groups. The utility value of a task positively correlates with interest among historically disadvantaged or underrepresented groups (Harackiewicz & Hulleman, 2010). Because AHNs are highly invested in helping their communities, their interest in scientific research careers can be increased when instructors highlight the altruistic value of research (Thoman et al., 2015). Instructors can also increase student motivation by being sensitive to the preferred learning styles of different cultural groups (Sanchez, 2000). For example, both Hispanic and Native American students prefer assignments that are collaborative instead of competitive and concrete instead of abstract (Sanchez, 2000). Both groups also value group assignments that allow them to safely express and reflect on ideas, and which provide them with feedback from both peers and instructors (Sanchez, 2000).

The utility value intervention is a social–psychological intervention that increases student interest, engagement, and motivation by showing why the course content is valuable and relevant (Harackiewicz et al., 2016). While this intervention improved grades for all students, it was particularly effective for FG-AHN students as it lowered the achievement gap between FG-AHN students and CG-majority students by 61% when compared to students in the control condition (Harackiewicz et al., 2016). This intervention disproportionately benefited FG-AHN, but not FG-majority students, highlighting the importance of considering intersectionality in the classroom.

Teach and Encourage Good Studying Techniques

Studying techniques are learned skills and can therefore not be assumed to be present in students.  Historically disadvantaged groups of students often lack sufficient time-management and studying skills (Engle et al., 2006; Rodriguez et al., 2018). Students from low-GWI backgrounds also spend significantly less time studying than their wealthier peers (Martin, 2015; Walpole, 2003). Studying techniques are learned skills and can therefore not be assumed to be present in students.   High-performing students commonly use good planning and time-management skills (Sebesta & Bray Speth, 2017) which reduce procrastination and improve educational outcomes (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021; Koch & Kleinmann, 2002). Instructors should accept responsibility for teaching students how to study so that they can approach studying with an open mind and a growth mindset (Tomanek & Montplaisir, 2004). When instructors facilitate the development of study skills it can lower student stress and anxiety, and increase their performance (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021).

Students can improve their studying performance by considering the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘when’ of studying. When considering the ‘who’ of studying, students should ask ‘who’ they can go to for help. This most commonly includes peers, TAs, and instructors. Although asking for TA or instructor assistance is among the least common study habits, it is frequently used by high-performing students, and has been shown to significantly improve exam grades (Sebesta & Bray Speth, 2017). Instructors can also clarify the ‘what’ of studying by reminding students about what resources are available and how they should be prioritized. Commonly studied material includes the textbook and any associated practice problems, practice exams, old quizzes, PowerPoint slides, notes, and online resources (i.e., course website, Khan Academy, YouTube videos etc.). Instructors should emphasize the course learning objectives and provide examples of assessment questions based on these objectives (Osueke et al., 2018). Students should carefully select ‘where’ they do their studying and should select a quiet, comfortable, distraction-free location (Sebesta & Bray Speth, 2017); distraction-free spaces are critical as studies have reported that students are distracted during about 20% of their study time and these distractions negatively correlate with exam performance (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021). Varying the environment by studying in different places has also been shown to enhance recall of information during exams (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). Once they have selected appropriate study locations, students can plan ‘when’ they will study. Ideally students should space out their studying (i.e., spacing) by studying early and often. Spacing is superior to cramming as it results in better exam scores and improved long-term retention (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). AHNs often underutilize spacing, but a simple study skills intervention can increase their use of spacing and reduce the AHN/White achievement gap (Rodriguez et al., 2018).

In addition to thinking about the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where,’ and ‘when’ of studying, students should be thoughtful about ‘how’ they are studying. Effortful study strategies in which students create something or test themselves are more effective at promoting long-term learning than passive strategies (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021). Students who studied using active strategies perform ~5-10% better on exams than students who only studied passively, and student exam performance improves by ~3-5% for each effortful study strategy that is used (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021). Students who studied using active strategies perform ~5-10% better on exams than students who only studied passively, and student exam performance improves by ~3-5% for each effortful study strategy that is used. Effortful studying strategies include self-testing (i.e., completing problem sets, practice exams etc.), summarizing textbook sections and notes (Sebesta & Bray Speth, 2017; Walck-Shannon et al., 2021), creating concept maps, participating in study groups, explaining concepts to a classmate, and answering questions posed by other students (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). Encouraging self-testing is key as students often feel that they learn more from superficial strategies such as rereading the textbook (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021).  Self-testing has also been shown to be underutilized by AHNs, but it can be increased by using a simple study skills intervention (Rodriguez et al., 2018). Another way to encourage effortful study strategies is to have students turn in a product (i.e., quiz answers, note summaries, concept explanations etc.) of their studying as a low-stakes assignment (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021).

Regardless of what effortful strategies are used, students can further improve their retention and exam performance by focusing rather than multitasking. While college students often believe that multitasking increases their productivity, it actually impairs their learning (May & Elder, 2018). Instructors can reduce multitasking by limiting the use of mobile phones and other electronic devices in their classrooms with clear policies on their syllabus.

While students should not multitask, they can improve their long-term retention by studying multiple topics together in a process called interleaving (Bjork & Bjork, 2011).  Interleaving increases the frequency of recalling and making comparisons between topics, which ultimately results in higher order thinking (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). Instead of interleaving, most students study a single topic at a time (i.e., blocking) because it deceptively feels more effective.  That said, extra care should be taken as “learners—as well as instructors—are at risk of being fooled by this pattern” (Bjork & Bjork, 2011).

Another important aspect of the ‘how’ of studying is for students to use metacognition to ask, “how am I doing?”. Students can use metacognition to recognize and resolve their own knowledge gaps. Whatever study strategies they choose, students should periodically evaluate the effectiveness of those strategies. If their current strategies are not working, students should determine if they are doing those strategies correctly (or for long enough) and they should consider adopting alternative study strategies to improve on future assessments.

Instructors can further encourage good studying practices in several ways. First, they can allow students the opportunity to review and retake past quizzes and exams after thinking metacognitively about their performance (Walck-Shannon et al., 2019). This practice encourages content mastery and can help students recognize gaps in their own studying practices. Second, instructors can use scaffolding to help students create goals and monitor their progress via self-regulated learning (Sebesta & Bray Speth, 2017). Third, instructors can help students to prepare for exams by offering formative assessment (e.g., quizzes, assignments) that accurately reflect the difficulty and type of problems they may encounter on the exam (Tomanek & Montplaisir, 2004). Fourth, instructors can encourage students to attend office hours and review sessions. Fifth, instructors can offer timely feedback that keeps students well appraised of their current standing in the course. Intrusive advising is one approach that provides low-performing students with email alerts about their performance and resources to help them improve (Dodge et al., 2015). Lastly, as mentioned above, instructors should encourage students to practice spacing, focusing, interleaving, and effortful studying rather than cramming, multi-tasking, blocking, and passive strategies (Walck-Shannon et al., 2021).

Goal Setting Intervention

Consciously setting goals has been shown to increase student self-regulation (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001), self-discipline, and performance (Duckworth et al., 2013), while also reducing procrastination (Kruglanski, 2002), and uncertainty-related anxiety (Hirsh et al., 2013). An intervention by Schippers et al. aimed to enhance goal-setting behavior in first-year college students (Schippers et al., 2015).  In this simple intervention, students created a vision about what their life would look like in 3-5 years, and then created eight clear and realistic goals with detailed strategies for how these goals could be obtained. This intervention increased academic achievement and retention of all students, but was especially helpful for ethnic minorities (Schippers, 2015). It decreased the ethnic performance gap by 38% and 93% in the first and second years respectively. These results were likely caused in part by the fact that this intervention improved students’ self-regulation and thus enhanced their exam-taking behavior.

Increasing Organization

Increasing organization improves student performance and makes the course more welcoming for students. The course syllabus, schedule, rubrics, and deadlines should be clear and easy to find. Having more graded assignments, scaffolded projects, and in-class active learning activities increases course structure and improves student performance (Freeman et al., 2011). When graded preparatory homework, guided-reading questions, and in-class extra credit activities were implemented in an introductory biology course, it increased studying and exam performance for all students by 3-4% while having an additional benefit for African American students (3%) and FG students (2.5%) (Eddy & Hogan, 2014). Increased course organization and structure also improved Black student in-class participation, and their perceptions of the importance and value of homework (Eddy & Hogan, 2014).

Encourage a Growth Mindset

Research shows that instructors can adopt several pro-growth-mindset behaviors to help their students. Instructors can encourage a growth mindset in their students by defining and explaining the different mindset types, praising students for improvement, encouraging struggling students to come to office hours, and by promoting metacognition and self-reflection (Canning et al., 2019; Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021; Powers, 2015). Additionally, instructors can consider adopting a mastery approach that gives students a second chance to answer exam questions they got wrong (Fernandez, 2020). Both growth mindset and self-efficacy can also be improved using formative assessments that let students recognize and correct their misconceptions as they are learning (Yin et al., 2008).

In addition to the instructor behaviors listed above, growth mindset interventions can also be used to change student beliefs and attitudes in ways that improve their course performance and lower their stress and anxiety (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021). Well-crafted interventions attempt to convince students that problem solving, reasoning, class performance, or another ability can be improved; oftentimes this involves a helpful analogy such as “your brain is like a muscle–it gets stronger (and smarter) when you exercise it” (Yeager & Dweck, 2020). Growth mindset interventions often include a writing component where students relate the concept of a growth mindset to their own lives or use it to give advice to future students who may be struggling academically. To be effective, such interventions must encourage students to actively improve by changing their strategies, asking for help, doing challenging work, or adopting new learning strategies (Yeager, Romero, et al., 2016; Yeager & Dweck, 2012). When students believe that they can become smarter they typically work harder and use more effective learning strategies.

A 2016 study by Yeager et al. was among the first to perform a large-scale growth mindset intervention in a university setting. This study found a 40% reduction in the full-time enrollment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged (i.e., racial minority and first-generation students) students. In a similar intervention involving 7,686 college students significantly improved GPAs for Latinx students and it reduced the White/Latinx academic achievement gap by 72% (Broda et al., 2018). In another intervention, the treatment group read an article entitled “You Can Grow Your Brain” and was then tasked with writing two short reflections shortly before taking two subsequent exams.  In their reflections, students wrote about how this article influenced their preparations and study strategies. This intervention increased the final exam scores of AHNs by more than 5% and eliminated the racial achievement gap but had no effect on the performance of White students (Fink et al., 2018). A 2018 meta-analysis examining many such growth mindset interventions found that they are especially beneficial for low-GWI and high-risk students (Sisk et al., 2018).