Listening to students: Beliefs and attitudes about active learning and effective lecture-style courses

Research shows that active-learning methods (e.g. discussion) are often superior to passive methods (e.g. lecture) with respect to learning outcomes. However, students sometimes report preferring and learning more in lecture-style classes compared to those in which they play an active role. These and related findings suggest students may lack awareness about the relative effectiveness of passive versus active teaching methods on their own learning. Here, we used a mixed methods approach to assess college students’ beliefs, attitudes, and feelings about lecture-style courses (n = 246). One primary goal was to assess if, and to what extent, students would express an unprompted desire for interaction in lecture-style classes when reflecting, in an open-ended format, upon their real-world educational experiences. Respondents reported that the majority of their classes were lecture style, in accordance with previous research, and noted that they view lecture as a mostly effective form of pedagogy. While respondents described high-level knowledge and compelling delivery of the subject matter, effective class design and use of technology, and good stagecraft on behalf of the instructor as important aspects of effective lecture-style teaching, a substantial proportion of students mentioned interaction as the most important component of an effective lecture style class, suggesting that student preferences for passive classrooms is far from universal. Implications of these findings are discussed.