The impact of classroom demonstrations and online discussions on student achievement

While researchers have documented many benefits of various active learning activities, the relative effectiveness of such techniques is still up for debate in the literature. This paper analyses the results of a two-year study involving ten sections of microeconomics principles classes in which face-to-face lectures are supplemented with in-class pen-and-paper practice problems (the control group), in-class demonstrations, or online discussions. The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) is used to measure learning outcomes. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) in-class demonstrations have a positive effect on student learning, with the exception of African–American students; (2) female students perform better having participated in online discussions; and (3) traditional pen-and-paper recitation questions “teach to the test” but do not impart as much economic intuition as the two alternative pedagogical methods.