How Active Learning Influences the Classroom Experiences and Self-Advocacy of STEM Majors with ADHD and Specific Learning Disabilities
For someone like me, who has advocated for the use of active learning in STEM instruction for decades, this study was eye-opening. Mariel Pfeifer and colleagues detail the ways that students can have very different responses to evidence-based teaching strategies.
Several participants stated that they found group work valuable, because their peers would explain concepts at a level they could more easily understand compared with how their instructor explained concepts. Carson, an upper-division student with both ADHD and SLD, shared that he no longer feels motivated to learn in his courses by his own grades. He explained how group work provided him with a different motivation to learn...
Several components related to group work were perceived to hinder the learning of our participants. These barriers included instances when peers did not want to work with the participant, because the participant was thought to work more slowly than the class... Other participants explained that group work can create the potential for them to experience negative emotions during class, such as embarrassment.