We performed a novel analysis in which independent faculty evaluators interviewed students from both a student focused active learning section and a more passive lecture oriented section. Overwhelmingly the evaluators judged the students who have taken the student focused section to be more competent. Chemistry 104 is a mainstream general chemistry course taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Total enrollment is 350 students with lectures led by the course instructor and teaching assistant lead discussion and laboratory sections. Thematic teaching uses the context of current real world issues to develop fundamental chemical principals.
Concept tests are in lecture questions which focus on specific concepts.
Answers are voted on by students both before and after discussion with their peers. Concept tests provide opportunities for immediate feedback for both students and instructors on the mastery of specific concepts. Learning communities cluster students with common interests in the same discussion section, creating a small-school atmosphere. Challenge problems are designed to foster cooperative learning. Commonly these questions involve multiple concepts that provide the opportunity for input from many different student perspectives and better emulate problems incurred in the real world environment.