written by Binod Nainabasti, David T. Brookes, Yuehai Yang, and Yuhfen Lin

Research has shown that an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) can be an effective learning environment for acquiring transferrable knowledge. Our research analyzed the relationship between students' participation in different areas of two consecutive ILE physics classes that implemented the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) curriculum, a type of widely used ILE, and their ability to learn new physics through teamwork. We quantified students' participation in two areas: in-class learning-activities and class review sessions. To measure students' ability to learn through teamwork, we gave them "group exams" that presented real life scenarios that could only be understood using physics they had not yet learned. We then gave them standard physics problems related to the group exam problems to solve individually. Our results suggest that successful students built an effective habit of teamwork learning through participating in group learning activities, whereas students who were disengaged in review did not perform well in these teamwork learning activities.

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Last Modified December 16, 2015

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