Assistant Professor of Teaching UC Davis Davis, California, United States
Abstract: The benefits of active learning are undeniable, but research is mounting on the anxiety that it can induce in students. Specifically, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) can arise in active learning classrooms due to an emphasis on interaction with peers and instructors. FNE can have detrimental effects on academic performance, as increased cognitive load due to anxiety can diminish academic capacities. Despite this, there is little research on the impacts of FNE on general academic performance and potentially heightened impacts on historically-excluded students, who experience disproportionately higher levels of classroom anxiety. We developed an intervention to improve academic performance of all students by facilitating effective coping strategies against FNE. To this end, we implemented a recurring data figure exploration activity, paired with a one-time cognitive reappraisal exercise. Within our introductory statistics course, we first implemented a weekly figure exploration activity designed to mitigate anxiety associated with pressure to produce a “correct” answer. During this exercise, we asked students to collaboratively interpret figures with missing contextual information (e.g., axis titles, legends) using a think-pair-share approach. While we expected students to critically analyze the partial figure, we emphasized the importance of creativity and uncertainty in science by encouraging wild, speculative guesses. We hypothesized that this activity can 1) reduce fear of negative evaluation and thus 2) improve willingness to seek help from peers or instructors and 3) improve academic performance.
Our pilot data suggest that creative figure exploration can benefit students by reducing fear of negative evaluation and increasing willingness to seek help when course-related questions arise. While the effects of the treatment on quantitative measures, including course grades, were not statistically significant, descriptive trends in this small-scale year of data collection were promising. Additionally, emergent coding of responses to open-ended questions about benefits of general course-related activities and struggles revealed clear themes of decreased FNE and increased willingness to seek help even in contexts outside of the figure exploration exercise (e.g., coding in R). Our preliminary results provide evidence that by developing interventions specifically to mitigate FNE during student interactions with peers and instructors, educators can even further improve the effectiveness of active learning strategies. With an increasing number of instructors adopting active-learning methods, it is crucial to address the potential anxiety associated with these methods.
