Can adding discussion-only active learning increase student learning in materials science class?

This Research-to-Practice Full Paper describes how Active Learning (AL) was implemented in two discussion sections of an “Introduction to Materials Science” course in a large classroom with 172 students. We studied the effect of group work on students' learning, and whether 50 minutes of AL is sufficient to increase students' performance in this course. To do so, worksheets for the discussion sections were designed. There were four discussion sections, two of which were chosen as the treatment group. In the treatment group the students worked on a worksheet of problems in groups of 3 while a teaching assistant was present to answer their questions. In other sections, the control group, the same problems were presented using PowerPoint slides and solved by the same teaching assistant. To assess students' learning, their performance in two midterm exams and the final exam are considered. Moreover, to evaluate students' interest in engineering, the Jones et al. (2010) survey was used to study students' motivation and interest in engineering. We found implementing AL for a short amount of time in each week did not change students' performance. We hope this paper will encourage educators to spend more time on AL, in their classrooms.