Assessing Long-Term Effects of Inquiry-Based Learning: A Case Study from College Mathematics
Marina Kogan
Sandra L. Laursen
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) Ethnography & Evaluation Research, University of Colorado Boulder
, 580 UCB, Boulder,
CO 80309-0580, USA
As student-centered approaches to teaching and learning are more widely applied, researchers must assess the outcomes of these interventions across a range of courses and institutions. As an example of such assessment, this study examined the impact of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in college mathematics on undergraduates' subsequent grades and course selection at two institutions. Insight is gained upon disaggregating results by course type (IBL vs. non-IBL), by gender, and by prior mathematics achievement level. In particular, the impact of IBL on previously low-achieving students' grades is sizable and persistent. The authors offer some methodological advice to guide future such studies.
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Marina Kogan has bachelors degrees in sociology/anthropology and computer science from City University
of New York and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She conducted this
work as a researcher at Ethnography & Evaluation Research at the University of Colorado Boulder and is now
pursuing a doctorate in computer science from the University of Colorado Boulder, with research interests in
the application of computer modeling and data mining methods to social problems.
Sandra L. Laursen has undergraduate degrees in chemistry and French from Grinnell College and a Ph.D. in
chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley. She is the Co-director of Ethnography & Evaluation
Research at the University of Colorado Boulder and leads evaluation and research studies of higher education
and career paths in science, engineering, and mathematics. She can be reached at .
To date, the most persuasive studies of active learning have examined student outcomes
within a single course at one or several institutions (e.g., Deslauriers et al., 2011; Kwon,
Rasmussen & Allen, 2005; and studies analyzed by Froyd, 2008, and Ruiz-Primo et al.,
2011). However, as active learning approaches are applied more broadly, evaluating their
outcomes presents new methodological challenges. Measures to assess effectiveness must be
general enough to apply across different classrooms and institutions. A common testthe
most direct method of evaluating classroom learningmay not be available or applicable.
Students course grades and course-taking patternstheir choices to pursue (or not)
subsequent courses in a disciplineoffer broad and arguably objective measures for evaluating the
effects of an educational intervention. While grading standards differ across instructors,
courses, and campuses, grades have a fairly stable social meaning (Pattison, Grodsky &
Muller, 2013). As part of students academic transcripts, grades become lasting records of
achievement. Like grades, course-taking patterns apply to varied academic contexts; they may
reflect students sustained or lost interest in a discipline following an initial experience. Several
recent studies have used various grade- and course-taking measures to evaluate the success of
an educational intervention, including final grades and pass/fail rates (e.g., Dubetz et al., 2008;
Tai, Sadler & Mintzes, 2006; Tien, Roth & Kampmeier, 2002), the next grade in a course
sequence (e.g., Farrell, Moog, & Spencer, 1999; Gafney & Varma-Nelson, 2008), grades in
multiple subsequent courses (e.g., De Paola, 2009; Weinberg, Hashimoto, & Fleisher, 2009),
and enrollment in higher level electives (Carrell & West, 2010).
Mostrom and Blumberg (2012) suggested that student-centered courses are subject to
accusations of grade inflation because the course has lost content or rigor or because
different assessment methods enable students to do better. They also argued that grade
improvement may in fact measure real improvement in learning. Measures that focus on
subsequent courses avoid this issue because students who did and did not experience the
intervention all take the same later courses. Moreover, such measures can detect valued and
lasting impact on students learning, academic success, or academic choices (Derting &
Ebert-May, 2010).
This study examined undergraduates grades and course-taking following an
inquirybased learning (IBL) experience in college mathematics. In the context of mathematics, IBL
approaches engage students in exploring mathematical problems, proposing and testing
conjectures, developing proofs or solutions, and explaining their ideas. As students learn
new concepts through argumentation, they also come to see mathematics as a creative
human endeavor to which they can contribute (Rasmussen & Kwon, 2007). Consistent with
current socio-constructivist views of learning, IBL methods emphasize individual
knowledge construction supported by peer social interactions (Ambrose et al., 2010; Cobb, Yackel
& McCain, 2000; Davis, Maher & Noddings, 1990).
In this article we report our analysis of student academic records for patterns in grade (...truncated)