Student Perceptions

Deslauriers et al. (2019) compared traditional lecture with active learning in an introductory physics course. Although students in the active sections learned more—as shown by higher performance on objective tests—they felt like they learned less. The authors argue that active learning requires more cognitive effort, which students may interpret as poor learning, while smooth lectures create an illusion of learning. This mismatch suggests that student perceptions alone (e.g., course evaluations) can be misleading when judging teaching effectiveness.