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Active Learning Techniques Versus Traditional Teaching Styles: Two Experiments from History and Political Science

Innovative Higher Education volume 24, pages 279–294 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Group role-playing and collaborative exercises are exciting ways to diversify college students' classroom experience and to incorporate active learning into your teaching. This article reports the results of two experiments that compared the effectiveness of role-playing and collaborative activities to teacher-centered discussions and lectures. Using both history and political science classes, we show that the students who participated in the role-plays and collaborative exercises did better on subsequent standard evaluations than their traditionally instructed peers. Presented here is a discussion of active learning, descriptions of the two experiments, and an explanation of the outcomes and implications of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wright State University, U.S.A

    Liam Anderson

Authors
  1. J. Patrick McCarthy
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  2. Liam Anderson
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McCarthy, J.P., Anderson, L. Active Learning Techniques Versus Traditional Teaching Styles: Two Experiments from History and Political Science. Innovative Higher Education 24, 279–294 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IHIE.0000047415.48495.05

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IHIE.0000047415.48495.05

Keywords

  • College Student
  • Social Psychology
  • Active Learning
  • Political Science
  • Standard Evaluation