Interview with Dr. Elli Theobald Written by Katerina Boukouzis Is there a specific age group in education that you have seen has huge inequity issues? ET: Sadly, there is a plentiful variety of inequity issues in STEM classes for students of all ages. However, lots of equity issues can be vividly seen in the education transition years, such as going from high school to college and in the introductory courses. I believe that the experience students have in the introductory courses they take in college have an enormous impact onwhether they feel like they belong and can succeed in STEM. You are a huge advocate of incorporating active learning into your teaching methods, instead of spending class time lecturing. Have you always used active learning in the classroom? ET: Because I began teaching middle school- aged students, I had to use teaching methods that would help keep the students engaged and attentive. I also found that lecturing at students and telling them the answer to certain questions is not the most effective way to help a student truly learn a concept; Instead, 1 try to guide a student through a question which ultimately leads them to answer their own question. I try my best to minimize the amount of time I spend speaking to my class. With Biology 180 being such a large class consisting of around 600 students a quarter, do you find it more difficult to incorporate active learning techniques into your lectures? ET: The activities do change a little bit from smaller to larger classes, but not necessarily a ton. In my class (Bio 180), I tend to use a lot of short activities every day (e.g., tum to your partner, etc.) and also on several days we have longer, more extended activities (e.g., a group assignment that takes most ofthe class period). However, I believe that active learning can make a class feel much smaller as it allows you to know the people that are sitting next to you.Definition of active learning via Dr. Theobald e6 Asuite of techniques that an instructor can use to ensure that the students are actively engaging in materials in the moment. 99 In a recent publication that you were a part of, “Active Learning: ‘Hands-On’ Meets ‘MindsOn”, you explained that active learning helps minimize inequities in STEM as students from groups that are historically marginalized perform better on exams when professors incorporate active learning. Do you know why this is? ET: We are currently in the process of testing some of our hypotheses as to why this is. One of our hypotheses explains that students from marginalized groups perform better because active learning provides a sense of belonging, comfort, and security in the classroom. Also, active learning gives students the opportunity to practice working through concepts before exams instead of just listening to professors discuss the concepts in lecture. As someone who has done extensive research on how beneficial active learning is, how do you recommend we encourage professors to begin incorporating active learning methods into their own teaching style? ET: This is a difficult question to answer because change can be so hard! Luckily, active learning is becoming a household term amongst departments at the UW as more and more instructors use active _ learning techniques, I think the best way to continue to motivate professors to incorporate this into their teaching style is through individualized feedback, immersion, and small immediate tools. Ultimately, 1 would say: many small changes can make a big impact. Don't stop. Keep striving for progress over perfection. 37