2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Higher education's promotion of diversity and inclusivity is greatly helped by historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Active learning pedagogy which places students at the epicenter of learning has been reported to aid in student engagement, retention, and workforce development. Also, the adoption of active learning strategies has grown in significance as a means of improving undergraduate STEM students' educational experiences and academic success. Moreso, this pedagogical approach attempts to increase involvement, foster self-efficacy, and inspire students in STEM fields. The experience during the adoption and implementation of an innovative active learning pedagogy by instructors and faculty at one of the HBCUs in the United States is the main emphasis of this study. By Examining the unique obstacles and opportunities experienced by educators, our goal is to comprehend the aspects that foster or hinder the implementation of active learning techniques in HBCUs. In this descriptive quantitative study, we adopted a validated survey instrument with 17 items that were divided into four factors: student engagement and preparation, support for instruction, teacher comfort and confidence, and institutional environment/rewards. We evaluated these elements to comprehend the challenges and lessons of instructors and faculty members at our historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) during the implementation of active learning techniques. The level of significance of the barriers towards adoption were investigated using relative importance index (RII). Confidence level for inferential statistics was set at 95.0%. The study identified the institutional environment/rewards as the most important obstacle, with a RII score of 2.55. This initial finding also indicated that to promote STEM education and foster academic success at HBCUs, a key area of focus is the use of active learning strategies by the faculty members. Our study establishes a foundation for further exploration of the specific difficulties and advantages faced by STEM faculties and instructors at HBCUs. This research can contribute to enhancing their implementation of innovative teaching methods and ultimately lead to better outcomes for the diverse student population. This study will significantly advance higher education's efforts especially HBCUs to provide a more inclusive and effective learning environment.