October 16, 2023
Lindsay Crawford, Ph.D., MS
My research focuses on identifying and promoting effective educational practices that help all students succeed, especially those who are underserved or underrepresented. This academic year, I examined students’ self-reported learning and actual learning before and after a project-based learning course (a common educational practice), Health Promotion. Students also completed a questionnaire evaluating the effectiveness of the project and the results were overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that the project is a valuable learning tool. Educational research often measures self-reported learning instead of actual learning, so it was a strength of this study to measure both and compare their outcomes. When comparing the learning outcomes, there were no meaningful differences between student groups (e.g., race, gender, or first-generation status), suggesting that project-based learning was effective for our population.
Learn more about Dr. Crawford’s lab: https://teachingandlearninglab.ucmerced.edu/
