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WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
A lecture works best when the room has something to do.
A review of 225 studies found students in lecture-only courses failed more often than those in courses with active learning. Other popular beliefs, like the 15-minute attention limit, have far thinner evidence behind them.
225 STUDIES on active learning
Check a claimTHE SHORT ANSWER
Three findings worth knowing
before the next lecture starts.
ATTENTION
A 2016 review in Advances in Physiology Education found the available primary data do not support a 10- to 15-minute attention limit. The biggest variation in attention came from differences between teachers.
Where the myth came fromNOTES
A 2021 direct replication found laptop note-takers did not perform worse on a quiz than longhand note-takers, though their notes contained more verbatim wording.
Check the claimsACTIVE LEARNING
Across 225 studies of undergraduate science teaching, active learning raised exam performance by about 6 percent on average and cut failure rates.
See the numbers
FOUR HABITS FOR THE NEXT LECTURE
These come straight from the studies above and The Learning Scientists' reading of them. They work whether you write by hand or type.
In active-learning courses, students read the material before class and short quizzes check their preparation.
Notes that overlap with what you will be tested on matter more than whether they are typed or handwritten.
Studying the notes before a test further reduced the differences between note-taking methods.
Whether by clicker, show of hands or a word with a neighbour, answering in-class questions is retrieval practice.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
From the 2014 review of 225 studies
of undergraduate science, engineering and maths teaching.
34 → 22
Students failing, out of every 100
Explaining the review, its lead author said that of 100 students, about 34 fail if they get lectured to but only 22 fail if they do active learning.
FAILURE · FREEMAN ET AL.
≈ 6%
Average rise in exam performance
Active learning raised exam performance by an average of 6 percent, which the University of Washington said would move a grade up about half a letter.
EXAM SCORES · FREEMAN ET AL.
Active learning here means students take part in discussion and problem-solving: reading before class, answering questions with clickers, or thinking and discussing before being called on at random.
A QUICK MYTH CHECK
Pick a common belief about lectures to see what the research found. The bar shows how strongly the studies below support the claim.
Based on Bradbury (2016), Urry et al. (2021), Morehead, Dunlosky and Rawson (2019) as summarised by The Learning Scientists, and Freeman et al. (2014) as reported by the University of Washington.
WHERE THE MYTH CAME FROM
Bradbury found that claims of attention waning at 10 to 15 minutes mostly trace back to one 1978 review. In one early study he examined, observers attended lectures together only 13% of the time, and 87% of the data came from a single observer.
Another study he discusses had students rate their own attention every 5 minutes in 50-minute lectures: it rose over the first 10 to 20 minutes, then declined slowly without falling below its starting level. His conclusion is that improving teaching matters more than cutting lectures short.
Questions
The evidence is thin. A 2016 review by Neil Bradbury concluded that the available primary data do not support the concept of a 10- to 15-minute attention limit, and that differences between teachers explain the most variation.
A 2021 direct replication found laptop note-takers did not do worse on a quiz than longhand note-takers. A 2019 replication found a longhand advantage only on factual questions, and none on a delayed test.
Teaching that expects students to take part in discussions and problem-solving beyond what they have memorised, such as answering clicker questions or discussing a problem before being called on.
A review of 225 studies found exam performance rose by an average of 6 percent, and roughly a third of students in lecture courses failed compared with about a fifth with active learning.
In the 2019 replication summarised by The Learning Scientists, studying the notes before a test further reduced differences between note-taking methods.
Updated
ABOUT THIS NAME
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