Active Learning Strategies

By David Griffin

Updated Mar 20, 2026

Introduction

Active learning can do more than make STEM teaching feel more dynamic. When instructors design classes for participation and accountability, they can improve engagement and help more students from underrepresented groups persist in these subjects.

The benefits of studying a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) subject in higher education are well documented, and these fields are associated with improved economic outcomes (U.S. Dept of Education, 2017a). Yet major inequities remain, with women and people of colour disproportionately underrepresented in the United States. While women receive almost 60% of bachelor's degrees awarded in the U.S., only 34% of those in STEM subjects are awarded to women (de Brey et al., 2018). Hispanic and African American populations account for 17.9% and 13.4% of the total, respectively. However, these groups only account for 12.1% and 8.6% of STEM-related primary degrees, respectively (Bauman, 2017; U.S. Dept of Education, 2017b; U.S. Census Bureau, 2018).

Improving STEM instruction is one practical way to address these disparities. Two evidence-based shifts are especially important: increasing structure (Eddy & Hogan, 2014) and increasing active learning (Freeman, 2014). To make those shifts, instructors need to take four steps:

Determine what students should be able to demonstrate by the end of the course.
Identify which skills and learning objectives are difficult for students to master alone.
Develop in-class activities that let students practise those challenging skills under staff supervision (active learning).
Maximise engagement by providing a framework of content and accountability before, during, and after class (increased structure).

This paper focuses on steps C and D. It outlines a set of evidence-based techniques that STEM instructors can adopt, with a supporting study for each one.

Increasing Active Learning

These techniques help students feel seen, contribute more often, and learn through discussion rather than passive listening.

Challenge: In large lectures, students can feel anonymous and disconnected from classmates or instructors.
Technique: Use name tents to reduce that anonymity and make introductions easier.
Impact: Using student names shows that the instructor notices who is in the room. It lowers a barrier to interaction, helps students learn one another's names, and can make the class feel more inclusive. Letting students add pronouns or phonetic spellings can strengthen that effect.
Supporting Paper: Cooper, 2017

Challenge: Women and people of colour are less likely to volunteer answers in class, and instructors may unintentionally reinforce that pattern through implicit bias.
Technique: Create a list of student names and randomise it before class to distribute participation more fairly. Instructors still need to choose questions carefully, because being called on can increase anxiety.
Impact: This can widen participation instead of relying on the same confident voices.
Supporting Paper: Eddy et al., 2014

Challenge: Many instructors do not use student response systems in large active-learning classrooms ('clickers') to their full potential.
Technique: Ask difficult, relevant questions, especially ones drawn from previous exams, to sharpen attention. Show poll results before revealing the correct answer to encourage discussion. You can also ask students to explain their choices privately, let them vote again after discussion, and explain why each option is correct or incorrect in terms students care about.
Impact: Peer discussion improves learning, even when students do not initially understand the topic. Used well, clickers create productive debate and keep attention high.
Supporting Paper: Smith et al., 2009

Challenge: Students often fail to think through multiple-choice questions deeply enough during an exam.
Technique: Use exam-style multiple-choice questions for group work in class. The activity should match the lecture goal, be appropriately challenging, and include plausible incorrect responses. Explain why the task matters, collect responses, and debrief the reasoning afterwards.
Impact: This gives students a low-stakes way to test exam readiness while helping instructors write stronger assessment questions.
Supporting Paper: Nicol, 2007

Challenge: Building student interaction and community can be difficult in STEM classes.
Technique: Create a 2-stage examination: students complete the first stage individually and then retake it immediately in a predetermined small group. Keep most of the time and marks attached to the individual stage.
Impact: The group stage pushes students to explain their thinking, which supports learning and builds community. Because most marks still come from individual work, students are less likely to reduce study time.
Supporting Paper: Jang et al., 2017 and Roberts et al., 2018

Increasing Structure and Accountability

These approaches free up class time for harder material and give students a clearer path into each session.

Challenge: Instructors often spend class time covering basic topics that students could learn before class, but rarely do without structure.
Technique: Give students clear instructions about what to learn before class, following the same pre-class logic used in flipped classroom approaches that help academically weaker students succeed, along with short questions to answer. Keep the pre-class task manageable, use a quiz or assignment to create accountability, and resist reteaching the same material in class.
Impact: That shifts class time towards the concepts students struggle with most.
Supporting Paper: Moravec et al., 2010 and Heiner et al., 2014

Challenge: Textbooks are not always an ideal source for individual pre-class student learning.
Technique: Create simple videos that focus on critical content. Use visuals with little on-screen text, and pair them with note-taking instructions or guiding questions.
Impact: Video can create a stronger sense of instructor presence than a textbook alone. Clear prompts also help students prepare more actively before class.
Supporting Paper: Stockwell et al., 2015

Taken together, these five in-class techniques and two pre-class approaches give STEM instructors practical ways to increase participation, community, and preparedness. That matters most where inequities persist: better-structured teaching can help more students from underrepresented groups stay engaged and succeed.

FAQ

Q: What specific outcomes or improvements have been observed in enrolment and retention rates of underrepresented groups in STEM fields as a result of implementing these teaching techniques?

A: The studies discussed here point to stronger participation, academic confidence, and a greater sense of belonging, all of which matter for retention. This article does not provide a single enrolment or retention figure tied to all seven techniques. Instead, the case is indirect but important: when students feel included, supported, and able to participate, they are more likely to stay engaged in STEM.

Q: How do these active learning and increased structure techniques compare in effectiveness to other strategies not mentioned in the paper, such as mentorship programmes, scholarships, or community building initiatives outside of the classroom?

A: These techniques improve what happens during teaching time: participation, understanding, and day-to-day belonging. Mentorship programmes, scholarships, and community building initiatives solve different problems, such as financial pressure, role modelling, and longer-term support. In practice, the strongest approach is usually to combine both, because better teaching works best when it sits inside a wider support system.

Q: What are the challenges or barriers instructors might face when attempting to implement these techniques, and how can they be addressed?

A: Common barriers include resistance to change, limited time, scarce resources, and uncertainty about how to run active learning well. Professional development can help instructors choose techniques that fit their class size and subject. Institutions also need to back this work with time, training, and practical support. Involving students through student voice in curriculum design can reduce resistance, because it keeps changes grounded in what learners actually need.

References

[1] Bauman K, School Enrolment of the Hispanic Population: Two Decades of Growth, U.S. Census Bureau, 2017, p. 28. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/08/school_enrollmentof.html.

[2] Cooper KM, Haney B, Krieg A, Brownell SE, What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrolment biology classroom, CBE Life Sci. Ed. 16 (1) (2017). DOI: 10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

[3] de Brey C, Musu L, McFarland J, Wilkinson-Flicker S, Diliberti M, Zhang A, Wang X, Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018, NCES 2019-038. National Center for Education Statistics, 2019.

[4] Eddy SL, Brownell SE, Wenderoth MP, Gender gaps in achievement and participation in multiple introductory biology classrooms, CBE Life Sci. Ed. 13 (3) (2014) 478–492. DOI: 10.1187/cbe.13-10-0204

[5] Eddy SL, Hogan, KA. Getting under the hood: How and for whom does increasing course structure work? CBE Life Sci. Ed. 13 (3) (2014) 453–468. DOI: 10.1187/cbe.14-03-0050

[6] Freeman S, Eddy S.L., McDonough M, Smith MK, Okoroafor N, Jordt H, Wenderoth MP, Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111 (23) (2014) 8410–8415. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1319030111

[7] Heiner CE, Banet AI, Wieman C, Preparing students for class: how to get 80% of students reading the textbook before class, Am. J. Phys. 82 (10) (2014) 989–996. DOI: 10.1119/1.4895008

[8] Jang H, Lasry N, Miller K, Mazur E, Collaborative exams: cheating? Or learning? Am. J. Phys. 85 (3) (2017) 223–227. DOI: 10.1119/1.4974744

[9] Moravec M, Williams A, Aguilar-Roca N, O’Dowd DK, Learn before lecture: a strategy that improves learning outcomes in a large introductory biology class, CBE Life Sci. Ed. 9 (4) (2010) 473–481 DOI: 10.1187/cbe.10-04-0063

[10] Nicol D, E-assessment by design: using multiple-choice tests to good effect, J. Furth. High. Educ. 31 (1) (2007) 53–64. DOI: 10.1080/03098770601167922

[11] Roberts JA, Olcott AN, McLean NM, Baker GS, M¨oller A, Demonstrating the impact of classroom transformation on the inequality in DFW rates (“D” or “F” grade or withdraw) for first-time freshmen, females, and underrepresented minorities through a decadal study of introductory geology courses, J. Geosci. Educ. 66 (4) (2018) 304–318. DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2018.1510235

[12] Smith MK, Wood WB, Adams WK, Wieman C, Knight JK, Guild N, Su TT, Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions, Science 323 (5910) (2009) 122–124. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165919

[13] Stockwell BR, Stockwell MS, Cennamo M, Jiang E, Blended learning improves science education, Cell 162 (5) (2015) 933–936. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.08.009

[14] U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218.

[15] U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, 2017, 2017a. Table 501.10. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_501.10.asp.

[16] U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, 2017, 2017b. Table 318.45. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_318.45.asp.

[17] U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, 2017, 2017. Table 322.30. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_322.30.asp.

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