ACTIVE LEARNING THROUGH STUDENTS' EYES: TEACHING INTERVENTIONS FOR OVERCOMING STUDENT RESISTANCE. P.M. Thorn, A.Vigilante, and D.U. Silverthorn. Departments of Science Education and Neurobiology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712.

    According to constructivist learning theory, students' conceptual understanding improves when they are engaged in the learning process.  However, when teaching strategies to promote active learning are introduced into undergraduate classrooms, students accustomed to a traditional lecture format may outwardly resist change.  Classroom dissonance often results and can easily influence instructors to return to the traditional lecture format.  This longitudinal study used a naturalistic design to examine how 125 upper-division, premedical students perceived and experienced the shift to an active learning format in an integrated physiology course.  Data collected included student attitude/experience surveys and student interviews throughout the course and one year after course completion.  Findings suggest that the majority of students confronted (to varying degrees) issues related to deficiencies in content knowledge, logical thinking skills, learning and study strategies, and perceptions of themselves as science learners -- all of which were outwardly manifested as "resistance" to the instructional format.  Student reactions were heavily influenced by perceived feedback, classroom interventions, and peer interactions.  Thematic analysis of data leads us to propose three models representing student reactions to active learning classes: "Success from the Start," "Struggle-Persist-Succeed," and "Struggle-Disengage-Fail."

FASEB J. 16(5):A755, 2002.