Dr. Sandra Laursen, UC Boulder, "What Has Ally Learned? Outcomes for Students and Teachers of IBL Mathematics Courses"

This video is of Sandra Laursen's talk from the 2011 Legacy of R. L. Moore Conference in Washington, DC.  If you have wondered about the scientific evidence regarding IBL math vs traditional lecture at the college level, this talk provides strong evidence from a variety of data sources.  I like to describe the work in this video as "all the vectors are pointing in the same direction."  What I mean by this is that they have collected a wide range of data sets, and have found a consistent story that points in the direction that IBL teaching produces better learning outcomes for students.

One of the striking results from the study is that women in IBL courses have some of the biggest gains compared to their peers in non-IBL courses.  IBL courses level the playing field, and could play a role in eliminating the gender gap in STEM! Indeed the gender gap may be perpetuated by traditional instruction.  This is important stuff!!

Dr. Sandra Laursen, University of Colorado, Boulder.