Caution, Student Experience May Vary: Social Identities Impact a Student's Experience in Peer Discussions

In response to calls for implementing active learning in college-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses, classrooms across the country are being transformed from instructor centered to student centered. In these active-learning classrooms, the dynamics among students becomes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:CBE life sciences education 2015-12, Vol.14 (4), p.ar45-ar45
Main Authors: Eddy, Sarah L, Brownell, Sara E, Thummaphan, Phonraphee, Lan, Ming-Chih, Wenderoth, Mary Pat
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Science Disciplines - education
Comprehension
Educational Measurement
Ethnic Groups - statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
Learning
Male
Peer Group
Problem-Based Learning - methods
Social Identification
Students - statistics & numerical data
Young Adult
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Summary:In response to calls for implementing active learning in college-level science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses, classrooms across the country are being transformed from instructor centered to student centered. In these active-learning classrooms, the dynamics among students becomes increasingly important for understanding student experiences. In this study, we focus on the role a student prefers to assume during peer discussions, and how this preferred role may vary given a student's social identities. In addition we explore whether three hypothesized barriers to participation may help explain participation difference in the classroom. These barriers are 1) students are excluded from the discussion by actions of their groupmates; 2) students are anxious about participating in peer discussion; and 3) students do not see value in peer discussions. Our results indicate that self-reported preferred roles in peer discussions can be predicted by student gender, race/ethnicity, and nationality. In addition, we found evidence for all three barriers, although some barriers were more salient for certain students than others. We encourage instructors to consider structuring their in-class activities in ways that promote equity, which may require more purposeful attention to alleviating the current differential student experiences with peer discussions.
ISSN:1931-7913
1931-7913
DOI:10.1187/cbe.15-05-0108