A classroom observation instrument to assess student response to active learning

Student resistance is often cited as a major barrier to faculty's use of active learning, but there are few research-based strategies for reducing this barrier. To address the need for such strategies, we have initiated a project to identify specific, research-based strategies to significantly reduce student resistance to faculty's use of active learning practices. In this work-in-progress paper, we describe the first phase of our research - the development and pilot testing of a classroom observation instrument to assess student responses to faculty's use of active learning. This instrument, which draws upon other published observation protocols, will allow us to capture data about faculty's use of and students' response to active learning as we undertake our larger research project.