The DOI matches its Crossref record; 71 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?
Open accessAbstract
At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention's relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or about the proximate factors responsible for the observed changes in student achievement. In this study, we disaggregate student data by racial/ethnic groups and first-generation status to identify whether a particular intervention-increased course structure-works better for particular populations of students. We also explore possible factors that may mediate the observed changes in student achievement. We found that a "moderate-structure" intervention increased course performance for all student populations, but worked disproportionately well for black students-halving the black-white achievement gap-and first-generation students-closing the achievement gap with continuing-generation students. We also found that students consistently reported completing the assigned readings more frequently, spending more time studying for class, and feeling an increased sense of community in the moderate-structure course. These changes imply that increased course structure improves student achievement at least partially through increasing student use of distributed learning and creating a more interdependent classroom community.
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“students in active-learning course designs that reduced or eliminated achievement gaps have reported an increased sense of community and self-efficacy compared to their peers in the lecture-intensive version of the same course (22, 23).”
From Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (2020) · cites this paper as [22]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“Disturbingly, data demonstrate that retention rates for first-generation college students in STEM are lower than those of continuing generation college students (Chen, 2013; Doerschuk et al., 2016) especially in key gatekeeping courses like General Biology and General Chemistry (Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Gregg-Jolly et al., 2016; Harackiewicz et al., 2014).”
From Exploring Organic Chemistry I students’ responses to an exam wrapper intervention. (2020) · cites this paper as Eddy & Hogan, 2014
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“Auspiciously however, interventions involving student centered pedagogies have shown excellent promise in combating these trends (Crimmins, 2017; Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Haak, HilleRisLambers, Pitre, & Freeman, 2011).”
From Exploring Organic Chemistry I students’ responses to an exam wrapper intervention. (2020) · cites this paper as Eddy & Hogan, 2014
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“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.”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Theobald, E. J., Hill, M. J., Tran, E., Agrawal, S., Arroyo, E. N., Behling, S., Chambwe, N., Cintrón, D. L., Cooper, J. D., Dunster, G., et al. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1916903117 · Cited by 1,387
“Based on this observation, we endorse recent appeals for researchers to disaggregate data and evaluate how course interventions impact specific subgroups of students (13, 22, 34, 59, 60).”
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“Generally, each question on these instruments asked about something different and did not involve extensive use of measures of validity to ensure that researchers were, in fact, measuring what they intended to measure (Armbruster et al., 2009; Rissing and Cogan, 2009; Eddy and Hogan, 2014).”
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“Further impetus for active learning has been added by evidence suggesting that active-learning strategies provide more equitable outcomes for underrepresented students in undergraduate biology education (Ballen et al., 2017; Eddy & Hogan, 2014; Haak et al., 2011).”
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“In addition, what is known is largely indirect evidence, including self-reported or observational data (Herreid and Schiller, 2012; Eddy and Hogan, 2014; Halverson et al., 2014).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Eddy, S. L., & Hogan, K. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hogan, Kelly A.
- Venue
- CBE—Life Sciences Education
- Published
- 2014-09
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 453-468
- ISSN
- 1931-7913 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4152207
- OpenAlex
- W2096648490
- Cited by
- 553
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 142.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- CBE—Life Sciences Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1118890, 0942215)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovative Teaching Methods
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Evaluation of Teaching Practices
- Keywords
- course structure, active learning, academic performance, racial and ethnic disparities, first-generation college students, Black-White achievement gap, distributed learning, classroom community, student study time, higher education
- MeSH terms
- Behavior, Curriculum, Educational Measurement, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Male, Perception, Regression Analysis, Students, Time Factors, Universities, Problem-Based Learning, Racial Groups
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