How do undergraduates cope with anxiety resulting from active learning practices in introductory biology?

Abstract

Active learning pedagogies decrease failure rates in undergraduate introductory biology courses, but these practices also cause anxiety for some students. Classroom anxiety can impact student learning and has been associated with decreased student retention in the major, but little is known about how students cope with anxiety caused by active learning practices. In this study, we investigated student coping strategies for various types of active learning (clickers, volunteering to answer a question, cold calling, and group work) that were used in 13 introductory Biology courses at a large public university in 2016-2017. A survey asked students to rate their anxiety regarding the four active learning practices and over half of the students explained the coping strategies they used to manage their active learning anxieties. Coping responses from 880 students were sorted into pre-defined categories of coping strategies: problem solving, information seeking, self-reliance, support seeking, accommodation, helplessness, escape, delegation, and isolation. We found that a different category of coping was dominant for each type of active learning. The dominant coping strategies for anxiety associated with clickers, cold calling, and group work were adaptive coping strategies of information seeking, self-reliance, and support-seeking, respectively. The dominant coping strategy for volunteering to answer a question was escape, which is a maladaptive strategy. This study provides a detailed exploration of student self-reported coping in response to active learning practices and suggests several areas that could be foci for future psychosocial interventions to bolster student regulation of their emotions in response to these new classroom practices.

The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on mental health of undergraduate students in New Jersey, cross-sectional study

“…While we did not test for possible exposure to COVID-19 virus, it is possible that those who perceived as being exposed to virus were more likely to search for information. It is also possible that highly anxious individuals may engage in more information-seeking as an adaptive coping strategy [48]. However, trusting news media was associated with decreased levels of perceptions of bodily dysfunctions.…”

Instructor Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety among College and University STEM Students

“…The benefits of active-learning strategies have been well documented, including increased learning for students, a decrease in the achievement gap for identities historically underrepresented in the sciences, and improved attitudes and perceptions toward science (Armbruster et al, 2009;Haak et al, 2011;Freeman et al, 2014;Theobald et al, 2020). However, recent research has indicated that many active-learning techniques can also increase student anxiety or the perceptions of student anxiety (England et al, 2017;Cooper et al, 2018a;Downing et al, 2020) and that students employ both adaptive and maladaptive strategies to cope with this anxiety (Brigati et al, 2020). Ultimately, students with high anxiety may even learn less in an active-learning classroom (Cohen et al, 2019).…”

“…, 2018a ; Cooper and Brownell, 2020 ; Downing et al. , 2020 ) and that students employ both adaptive and maladaptive strategies to cope with this anxiety ( Brigati et al. , 2020 ).…”

Instructor strategies to alleviate student stress and anxiety in colleges and universities

“…The benefits of active learning strategies have been well-documented, including increased learning for students, a decrease in the achievement gap for identities historically underrepresented in the sciences, and improved attitudes and perceptions toward science (Armbruster, Patel, Johnson, & Weiss, 2009;Freeman et al, 2014;Haak, HilleRisLambers, Pitre, & Freeman, 2011). However, recent research has indicated that many active learning techniques can also increase student anxiety or the perceptions of student anxiety Cooper, Downing, et al, 2018;Downing, Cooper, Cala, Gin, & Brownell, 2020;England et al, 2017), and that students employ both adaptive and maladaptive strategies to cope with this anxiety (Brigati et al 2020). Some techniques, such as cold-calling -asking a student to share a response with the class without the student volunteering -have been identified as producing particularly high anxiety in students England et al, 2017).…”