Why we are teaching science wrong, and how to make it right: It’s about CS retention, too

Important new paper in Nature that makes the argument for active learning in all science classes, which is one of the arguments I was making in my Top Ten Myths blog post. The image and section I’m quoting below are about a different issue than learning — turns out that active learning methods are important for retention, too.

Active learning is winning support from university administrators, who are facing demands for accountability: students and parents want to know why they should pay soaring tuition rates when so many lectures are now freely available online. It has also earned the attention of foundations, funding agencies and scientific societies, which see it as a way to patch the leaky pipeline for science students. In the United States, which keeps the most detailed statistics on this phenomenon, about 60% of students who enrol in a STEM field switch to a non-STEM field or drop out2 (see ‘A persistence problem’). That figure is roughly 80% for those from minority groups and for women.

via Why we are teaching science wrong, and how to make it right : Nature News & Comment.