Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    Hands-On Career Preparation
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    Alternative Pathways
Sign In
Newsletter Icon

Teaching

Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

July 7, 2022
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email

From: Beckie Supiano

Subject: Teaching: Worried About Cutting Content? This Study Suggests It’s OK.

This week:

  • I share insights from a new study on the longer-term effects of active learning.
  • I point you toward a related Q&A.
  • I pass along readers’ advice for new instructors.
  • I ask you to share your plans for reconnecting with students this fall.

‘Be Brave and Reduce Content’

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

This week:

  • I share insights from a new study on the longer-term effects of active learning.
  • I point you toward a related Q&A.
  • I pass along readers’ advice for new instructors.
  • I ask you to share your plans for reconnecting with students this fall.

‘Be Brave and Reduce Content’

One of the main objections to active learning is that in order to teach this way, professors simply can’t cover as much content. That’s a particular concern in disciplines where students are expected to carry knowledge from one course to the next. Even if active learning helps students in a particular course, the thinking goes, might that missing content hurt their performance in subsequent courses?

A new study from Bryan Dewsbury, an associate professor in biological sciences at Florida International University, and his coauthors addresses this head on. The study, published in PLOS ONE, follows students at a large, public research university in the northeast who took the introductory-biology sequence in a variety of formats to see how they perform in the next level of biology.

Three sections of the first-semester course used a traditional lecture format; a fourth used a form of active and inclusive instruction. One section of the second-semester course used active learning, and the other was a traditional lecture.

Students who took the inclusive section of the first intro course and the active section of the second course went on to earn the highest grades in their 200-level biology courses, the study found. That pushes back against the objection that active learning provides a disservice to students later on.

On Twitter, Dewsbury summed it up like so: “Let’s be brave and reduce content. I promise you. If done thoughtfully, and with the aim of centering humanism, the students will be more than fine. Inclusive and active pedagogies reduce academic outcome gaps and improve long-term performance.” (For background on why active learning yields good student outcomes, check out this article from our colleague Dan Berrett.)

Professors who are loath to cover less content are sometimes painted as curmudgeons, Dewsbury said in an interview. But that characterization fails to reckon with their context. All the incentives in science reward making very specialized discoveries, Dewsbury noted, and expertise is the coin of the realm. It’s only natural that professors care about passing that knowledge on.

Still, there’s a difference between covering something—which might mean saying it aloud once or putting it in the fine-print of a slide—and giving students a real shot at learning it. This, Dewsbury noted, is a place where STEM is a bit out of step with how things work in some other disciplines.

“You would never go to an English class and walk in and see the professor reading The Sound and The Fury,” he said. “The class only makes sense if you read the book and came to class to talk about themes and things like that. But go back to the science side of campus and yes, you have 45 slides in 50 minutes, and it’s all summarized in bullet points.”

But that is starting to change. “I’ve only been a faculty member for eight years,” he said. “And I can tell you that so many conversations that I’m having now, that I’m giving speeches on now, that I’m doing workshops on now, were literally dead on arrival in 2014.”

That offers some hope. “In these dark times—for other reasons,” Dewsbury said, “where it’s easy to despair about what we haven’t achieved yet, I think it’s worth reflecting a little bit on how far many of our colleagues and universities have come. And maybe think a little bit more on: What are the things that successfully brought them to that place of growth? And how can we leverage those things to push people even further?”

Evidence on Active Learning

In our conversation, Dewsbury described the culture that can make active learning a hard sell for faculty in STEM. His comments resonated with what Scott Freeman, an author of two meta-analyses of active learning, told me in a recent interview, which The Chronicle published as a Q&A. “The nut of the problem,” Freeman said, “is that the system doesn’t reward change, especially in teaching.” You can read the full conversation here.

More Advice for New Instructors

In a recent newsletter, I shared highlights from a Twitter thread of advice for first-time instructors and asked readers to weigh in with their own ideas. Here’s some of what you shared:

  • Autar Kaw, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Florida, provided three tips: “Be organized. If you are fumbling around in-class and/or off-class, students notice. Before they show interest, you have to show interest. Align assessment with objectives/outcomes.”
  • Brenda Hawley, a part-time adjunct at Sierra College and retired high-school teacher, wrote: “Be overly prepared. A lesson will always go faster than you think it will. Students like a professor who is organized and confident.”
  • Kurt-Alexander Zeller, coordinator of the division of music at Clayton State University, wrote: “Show your students, every day, every class, why you love and were drawn to this subject matter. Don’t expect or require them to share your feelings about the subject, but make sure that you demonstrate or embody why psychology or botany or macroeconomics or opera (my field) became your life’s vocation or fascination every time you see them.”

I may include more advice in a future newsletter, so it’s not too late to send me yours! Write to me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.

What Will College Look Like This Fall?

Does your college, or your department, have plans to focus on some of the problems with student disconnection this past year? Are you ramping up experiential-learning opportunities? Creating first-year courses that help rebuild academic and social skills? Modifying or developing new courses that connect to what’s happening in the world right now? Creating stronger ties among academic departments and student-support services, including mental-health counseling?

Beth wants to hear your plans, even if you’re just in the idea stage. You can fill out this Google form or write to her at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.

Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com or beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.

— Beckie

Learn more about our Teaching newsletter, including how to contact us, at the Teaching newsletter archive page.

Tags
Teaching & Learning
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Graphic vector illustration of a ship with education-like embellishments being tossed on a black sea with a Kraken-esque elephant trunk ascending from the depth against a stormy red background.
Creeping concerns
Most Colleges Aren’t a Target of Trump (Yet). Here’s How Their Presidents Are Leading.
Photo-based illustration of calendars on a wall (July, August and September) with a red line marking through most of the dates
'A Creative Solution'
Facing Federal Uncertainty, Swarthmore Makes a Novel Plan: the 3-Month Budget
Marva Johnson is set to take the helm of Florida A&M University this summer.
Leadership & governance
‘Surprising': A DeSantis-Backed Lobbyist Is Tapped to Lead Florida A&M
Students and community members protest outside of Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
Campus Activism
One Year After the Encampments, Campuses Are Quieter and Quicker to Stop Protests

From The Review

Glenn Loury in Providence, R.I. on May 7, 2024.
The Review | Conversation
Glenn Loury on the ‘Barbarians at the Gates’
By Evan Goldstein, Len Gutkin
Illustration showing a valedictorian speaker who's tassel is a vintage microphone
The Review | Opinion
A Graduation Speaker Gets Canceled
By Corey Robin
Illustration showing a stack of coins and a university building falling over
The Review | Opinion
Here’s What Congress’s Endowment-Tax Plan Might Cost Your College
By Phillip Levine

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin