title: Classroom sound can be used to classify teaching practices in college science courses.
abstract: Active-learning pedagogies have been repeatedly demonstrated to produce superior learning gains with large effect sizes compared with lecture-based pedagogies. Shifting large numbers of college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty to include any active learning in their teaching may retain and more effectively educate far more students than having a few faculty completely transform their teaching, but the extent to which STEM faculty are changing their teaching methods is unclear. Here, we describe the development and application of the machine-learning-derived algorithm Decibel Analysis for Research in Teaching (DART), which can analyze thousands of hours of STEM course audio recordings quickly, with minimal costs, and without need for human observers. DART analyzes the volume and variance of classroom recordings to predict the quantity of time spent on single voice (e.g., lecture), multiple voice (e.g., pair discussion), and no voice (e.g., clicker question thinking) activities. Applying DART to 1,486 recordings of class sessions from 67 courses, a total of 1,720 h of audio, revealed varied patterns of lecture (single voice) and nonlecture activity (multiple and no voice) use. We also found that there was significantly more use of multiple and no voice strategies in courses for STEM majors compared with courses for non-STEM majors, indicating that DART can be used to compare teaching strategies in different types of courses. Therefore, DART has the potential to systematically inventory the presence of active learning with ∼90% accuracy across thousands of courses in diverse settings with minimal effort.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8286-5419
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authors.affiliation: Center for Computing for Life Sciences, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014.|Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.|Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University, Tiburon, CA 94920.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.|Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University, Tiburon, CA 94920.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.|Science/Mathematics/Technology Division, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA 94066.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8704-6578
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
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authors.affiliation: Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192.|Biological, Health & Environmental Sciences Division, DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA 95014.
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authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132.
authors.forename: Carmen R
authors.initials: CR
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014.|Department of Biology, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022.
authors.forename: Jeffrey N
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132; kdtanner@sfsu.edu.
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mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000592:standards*; D012586:Science / Q000193:education*; D013016:Sound; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*; D013672:Technology; D014495:Universities / Q000592:standards
keywords: active learning; assessment; evidence-based teaching; lecture; science education