Using Worked Examples with Active Learning in a Large lecture College Algebra Course

Abstract

At a research university near the east coast, a college algebra class has been restructured into two large lectures a week, an active recitation size laboratory once a week, and an extra day devoted to active group work called Supplemental Practice (SP). SP was added as an extra day of class where the SP leader has students work in groups on a worksheet of examples and problems, based on worked example research, that were covered in the previous week’s class material. Two sections of the course were randomly chosen to be the experimental group and the other section was the control group. The experimental group was given the SP worksheets and the control group was given a question-and-answer session. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control on a variety of components in the course, particularly in light of the number of days students attended SP.