Education

How active learning affects STEM students with learning disabilities

Katie Cowart
By Katie Cowart
March 4, 2023

Active learning is an instructional approach that involves engaging students with the learning process through group work, case studies, class discussions and other methods. This type of approach places a greater degree of responsibility on the learner. Students with disabilities may have unique experiences in active-learning STEM courses because most active-learning practices were designed with limited input from students with disabilities.

Researchers in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences investigated how the incorporation of active-learning practices influence the learning and self-advocacy experiences of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific learning disorders (SLD) in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. 

Cassandra Wright, University of Georgia

In a paper published in CBE—Life Sciences Education, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 25 STEM majors with ADHD and/or SLD (ADHD/SLD) registered with a campus disability resource center and analyzed the data using qualitative methods. Participants described how they perceived active learning in their STEM courses to support or hinder their learning and how active learning affected their self-advocacy.

Active learning could hinder the learning of students with ADHD/SLD because many accommodations that students with disabilities use were designed to be used for lecture courses. 

“One common accommodation is using a note taking accommodation,” said Mariel Pfeifer, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology and lead author on the paper. “Note-taking accommodations typically involve a student from the class volunteering to take notes and uploading the notes they take to a portal that the student using the accommodation can anonymously access. In a lecture course, all of the students are receiving the same information from the instructor. But when we use active-learning practices like group work, students are now working with a few other students in different places in the classroom. How does that change the notetaking process?” 

When a student’s accommodations are no longer effective in an active-learning environment, that student may need to advocate for themselves with their professor and their peers. 

“Both ADHD and SLD are considered non-apparent disabilities,” said Julie Stanton, an associate professor in the department of cellular biology, and senior author on the paper. “Asking for and receiving effective accommodations might be a bit more challenging, because someone won't immediately recognize that you may need an accommodation. This is where self-advocacy becomes important.”

Since the study considers the voice of STEM students with disabilities, the researchers received more in-depth responses about different active-learning techniques and were able to identify how different approaches might help or hinder student learning.  

“A single active-learning practice can support successful instruction, but it could also be perceived to hinder learning,” said Pfeifer. “The heart of this research shows that it is not necessarily what type of active learning practice an instructor chooses to implement that negatively affects students with ADHD/SLD, but it is more about how they implement that practice.”

Pfeifer and Stanton hope instructors will support students with ADHD/SLD by following the recommendations from participants that are provided in the paper.

“Based on our participants’ department experiences, we created a table that highlights how instructors can use active-learning practices in a way that supports students with ADHD/SLD in their courses,” said Pfeifer. “The table gives instructors suggestions they can implement in their active-learning course today.”

This article was first published by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia and was republished with permission. Read the original.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Katie Cowart
Katie Cowart

Katie Cowart is the public relations specialist for Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She is also a Franklin College alumna with a bachelor’s degree in English. She earned her master's in emerging media from the New Media Institute in Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2022.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Careers

Careers highlights or most popular articles

Being a whole person outside of work
Hobbies

Being a whole person outside of work

Nov. 1, 2024

Creating art, community service, physical exercise, theater and music — four scientists talk about the activities that bring them joy.

Upcoming opportunities
Announcement

Upcoming opportunities

Oct. 31, 2024

Just added: Nominations are being accepted for FASEB's Excellence in Science Awards! Plus: Remember to register for the ASBMB Deuel conference, a must-attend event for lipids investigators.

Balancing research and classes in graduate school
Advice

Balancing research and classes in graduate school

Oct. 25, 2024

Our careers columnist talks to a doctoral candidate about managing lab and study time by carefully scheduling classes, getting to the lab early and “timeboxing.”

Upcoming opportunities
Announcement

Upcoming opportunities

Oct. 24, 2024

Friendly reminder: Early-decision abstracts for the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting are due by Oct. 30!

Industry partnership opportunities
Jobs

Industry partnership opportunities

Oct. 22, 2024

The deadlines for these are in November.

The molecular biology of commercial cannabis testing
Jobs

The molecular biology of commercial cannabis testing

Oct. 18, 2024

Anthony Torres of Front Range Biosciences, explains how scientists analyze organisms growing on the plant as well as the genetic markers in cannabis DNA.