Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?

“This type of research is being referred to as second-generation education research (Eddy et al., 2013; Freeman et al., 2014) and will help refine and optimize active-learning interventions by identifying the critical elements that make an intervention effective.”

“Yet the different racial and ethnic groups that are included in the URM designation have very different cultures, histories, and exposure to college culture that could impact whether a particular classroom strategy is effective for them (Delpit, 2006).”

“Finally, feeling like they are part of a community increases both performance and motivation, especially for historically underrepresented groups (Walton and Cohen, 2007; Walton et al., 2012).”

“…of our study, arguably as important as increased performance, because a sense of being part of a community (belonging) is crucial for retention (Hurtado and Carter, 1997; Hoffman et al., 2002) and has been 464 CBE—Life Sciences Education correlated with increased performance for…”

“Thus, through increased engagement with the material (because of increased interest in it) student performance will increase (Carini et al., 2006).”

“When discussing reasons for leaving STEM, many students, particularly students of color and women, describe feelings of isolation and lack of belonging (Hewlett et al., 2008; Cheryan et al., 2009; Strayhorn, 2011).”

“Freeman et al. (2011) described how to increase course structure from low (lecture-based) to high (active learning), and a follow up study by Eddy and Hogan (2014) included some specific examples of how course structure was improved for an introductory biology class.”

“The initial VE was purposefully structured to be somewhat fluid in its communication requirements and the number of interactions, as it has been demonstrated that, generally, moderately-structured instruction performs better than extremely lax or strict instruction (30).”

“…in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) generally increases undergraduate student learning and success in STEM [1, 2] and reduces the disparities in outcomes between marginalized students who are historically underrepresented in STEM and majority students in STEM [3–6].”

“…effective active-learning course design is “high structure,” in which students obtain basic course content before coming to class to prepare them for the more cognitively demanding in-class active-learning exercises (Freeman et al., 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; O’Flaherty and Phillips, 2015).”

“Socially, it promotes greater awareness of other students and, academically, it decreases achievement gaps among students, especially among minority students (Cooper & Brownell, 2016; Eddy & Hogan, 2014).”

“…help to minimize bias, create more consistency, and thereby result in more equitable evaluation experiences across faculty, much like structure fosters equity in other contexts in higher education (e.g., Haak et al., 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; O’Meara et al., 2019; Laursen and Austin, 2020).”

“, 2014), working particularly well for underrepresented students (Eddy and Hogan, 2014).”

“Such an intervention improved course performance for all students, but it worked especially well for black students [3].”

“A possible explanation for why EOP students are less accurate when grading a peer rests in the value that EOP students place on maintaining social networks and community (Stephens et al., 2012; Eddy and Hogan, 2014).”

“Education research has identified a number of interventions to address the problems presented in these reports, such as active learning (1, 5), increased course structure (6, 8), and the introduction of primary literature into the classroom (9, 17), to name a few.”

“…2007; Serpa, White, & Pavlis, 2007), using multicontextual and culturally responsive approaches (Bang & Medin, 2010; Ch avez & Longerbeam, 2016; Ibarra, 1999; Semken & Morgan, 1997), and increasing course structure (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Haak, HilleRisLambers, Pitre, & Freeman, 2011).”

“…of literature has shown Evidence Based Pedagogies (EBPs) have a significant positive effect on STEM learning and may be particularly well suited for improving engagement, self-efficacy, performance, and degree attainment among ethnic minorities (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Mulnix, Vandegrift & Raj, 2016).”

“Refs.(3,4,24)) and that positive perceptions, positive experiences, and buy-in are important to and predictive of AL implementation by instructors and TAs (e.”

“Toward increasing engagement and decreasing achievement gaps, more structured courses and greater employment of active-learning techniques may be particularly effective (Tanner, 2013; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Gavassa et al., 2019).”

“…interventions and examined the effects on the performance of an entire class, and more recently the focus has included subgroups of students within a class (e.g., Shields et al. , 2012; Hall et al. , 2013; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Batz et al. , 2015; Connell et al. , 2016; Barral et al. , 2018).”

“Findings from several studies suggest that active-learning methods may have an even greater benefit for students with disadvantaged educational backgrounds (Haak et al., 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Gavassa et al., 2019), which are common in community college students (AACC, 2020).”

“, 2019) and to reduce the achievement gap among student populations (Haak et al., 2011; Eddy and Hogan 2014).”

“After the addition of active learning into an introductory STEM course, students reported that they spent more time studying for the course and were more likely to complete and appreciate the pre-lecture assignments (72).”

“The introductory biology course employed a high-structure active learning (Eddy & Hogan, 2014) course design across pre-class, in-class, and after-class phases, incorporating various learning activities.”

“…to have opportunities to work individually or in groups can increase students’ conceptual learning and reduce achievement gaps based on gender, race and ethnicity, and income (e.g., Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Freeman et al., 2014; Kogan & Laursen, 2014; Laursen et al., 2014; Theobald et al., 2020).”

“The benefits of active learning are well‐documented and proven, both in overall student learning and in reducing gaps in marks, achievement, and failure rates between underrepresented groups and majority students [7,11,25].”

“…self-regulated as the enactment of these strategies likely requires external regulation in the form of high-structure designs that require their use (Eddy & Hogan, 2014), or the explicit instruction of skills that empower students to self-regulate their own learning in such complex environments.”

“Also, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that learning gains from using these teaching approaches in highly structured classrooms are particularly good for students from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Haak, 2011; Trenshaw, 2016).”

“Importantly, engaged teaching practices can not only improve student learning, but can narrow the achievement gap between student groups (Hake, 1998; Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Freeman et al., 2014; Haak, HilleRisLambers, Pitre, & Freeman, 2011; McConnell, Steer, & Owens, 2003; McConnell, Steer, Owens, &…”

“Students’ demographic characteristics have been shown to influence their perspectives about learning (Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Martinho et al., 2015), so we also examined values in the context of demographics (e.g., gender, underrepresented minority group status) and academic factors (e.g., grade…”

“…pedagogies increases overall student performance (Freeman et al., 2014) and significantly improves equity in outcomes through a disproportionate positive effect on performance for students with historically minoritized or marginalized identities in STEM (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Theobald et al., 2020).”

“…of questions and groups coupled with published work on social identity effects on student interactions in small groups (Eddy et al. 2014, 2015; Eddy and Hogan 2014; Buchenroth-Martin et al. 2016; Grunspan et al. 2016) underscores instructors need to pay particular attention to what students…”

“The historical and socio-political experiences of the two groups in the U.S. have many important differences, and others have found differential performance in some settings (Eddy & Hogan, 2014).”

“While some have suggested student-centered practices for large lecture halls (e.g. Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Reinholz, 2018; Smith & Cardaciotto, 2011), the physical distance between instructor and students can itself be a barrier to equitable power dynamics.”

“A reduction in the contribution of high-stakes exams toward total grade (Cotner and Ballen, 2017) or using more frequent low-stakes assessments (Eddy and Hogan, 2014) have been shown to reduce disparities in student course grades by social identities.”

“…pedagogical approaches that promote undergraduate STEM student learning more effectively than traditional, instructorcentered, lecture-based approaches (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Dunkle & Yantz, 2021; Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Freeman et al., 2014; Haak et al., 2011; Trigwell & Prosser, 2004).”

“Eddy and Hogan first noted that it was possibly this increase in structure and forcing functions, as much as the nature of the active learning activities themselves, that led to increased student success, especially for first generation college students [28].”

“This adds to the evidence found by Eddy and Hogan, who have shown that high levels of course structure help students who are under-represented and/or first generation college students [7].”

“…practices including back-ward design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005) and universal design for learning (www. cast.org), and entailed a highly structured format (Supplemental Table 1), which is associated with better student outcomes (Haak et al. , 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Gavassa et al, 2019).”

“Likewise, Eddy and Hogan (2014) found that a “moderate-structure” intervention significantly enhanced engagement and improved course performance for all students, but disproportionately increased the performance of Black students (halving the Black-White achievement gap) and first-generation…”

“(Eddy and Hogan, 2014, Graham, 2013, Ross, 2014, Edoh et. al., 2017) In Section 2, we review the educational theory behind various instructional strategies in mathematics and science courses.”

“More encouraging still, these studies show that while all students benefit from highly structured courses, students from under-represented minority groups benefit disproportionately (Freeman et al. 2014; Haak et al. 2012; Eddy and Hogan 2014).”

“Findings will interest teaching librarians who engage in IL instruction as well as LIS educators and professional associations involved with librarian education and training initiatives.”

“Although frequent, lower-stakes assignments are often viewed as inclusive because they reduce reliance on high-stakes exams (Eddy and Hogan, 2014), they also assume students have time outside of class to complete them.”

“Further, adding more structure to courses (Eddy and Hogan 2014), using active learning strategies (Freeman et al. 2014), and providing frequent opportunities for retrieval practice (O’Day and Karpicke 2020; Shobe 2021) are additional ways to support students’ learning.”

“…those who are first in their families to attend college and students who identify with persons historically excluded because of their ethnicity and race (Ballen et al. 2017; Bauer et al. 2020; Beichner et al. 2007; Eddy and Hogan 2014; Haak et al. 2011; Theobald et al. 2020; Wilton et al. 2019).”

“…immediacy (Liu, 2021), developing a sense of community and making the large classroom seem less intimidating (Tanner, 2013; White et al. , 2021), and incorporating teaching practices such as active learning (Eddy and Hogan, 2014) and group work (Clements et al. , 2022; Frey and Lewis, 2023).”

“…(STEM) education research has made impressive strides over the past few decades in demonstrating empirically that changes to teaching and learning environments can improve student outcomes (e.g., Chi and Wylie, 2014; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Deslauriers et al., 2019; Dewsbury et al. , 2022).”

“(PEERs) remain intractable (10) despite evidence that these gaps can be reduced by utilizing appropriate pedagogies (6, 8).”

“As discussed by previous studies [cf. 9, 58–60], student populations from these backgrounds share historical marginalization and present underrepresentation in American post-secondary STEM environments [61].”

“Our findings align with the findings of many other studies of “high-structure” classrooms that suggest that an intervention can be low-stakes and graded only for completion but still be meaningful for students (Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Schinske and Tanner, 2014).”

“The homework assignments also serve to restructure point values for the course to include more low- stakes formative assessments, which has been shown to reduce or remove achievement gaps in introductory biology courses (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Haak et al., 2011).”

“These groupings encourage a sense of collaboration and belonging (Eddy & Hogan 2014).”

“…and course performance (Sadler, 1989; Boston, 2002; Black and Wiliam, 2009; Freeman et al. , 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014), and courses that include regular FA activities have particular benefits for students from underrepresented demographic groups (Freeman et al. , 2011; Eddy and Hogan, 2014).”

“Although online courses may offer time flexibility for first-generation learners, an online learning modality may not always provide the extent or variety of communal learning opportunities that first-generation students prefer [27,28].”

“Structured courses can be characterized by those with clear and accessible learning goals and expectations, inclusive, in-class opportunities to work with course material (Eddy and Hogan 2014), and frequent activities to practice working with material outside of class (Eddy and Hogan 2014).”