First-generation college students face a variety of barriers in higher education compared with their continuing-generation peers. Active learning practices in STEM classrooms can potentially narrow the achievement gap by increasing academic self-efficacy, or confidence in academic abilities. However, these practices can also provoke anxiety in students. Given that anxiety can impair cognitive performance, we sought to understand how first-generation students perceive active learning practices and whether these perceptions affect the anticipated benefits of active learning. As part of a larger study on pedagogical practices in anatomy and physiology courses at the community college level, we asked students to rate various active learning techniques on how much each provoked anxiety and how much each contributed to their learning. All students (N = 186) rated some techniques as more anxiety-provoking than others (e.g., cold calling); however, compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students’ ratings tended to be higher. First-generation students anticipated doing more poorly in a course and attained lower final grades. Notably, the use of active learning practices did not improve first-generation students’ academic self-efficacy: by the end of term, academic self-efficacy decreased in non-white first-generation students whereas other students showed little change. When introducing active learning strategies, instructors may need to proactively address underrepresented minority students’ emotional reactions and ensure that all students experience success with these practices early in a course as a way to bolster academic self-efficacy.

中文翻译：

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相信但不是全部都能实现：主动学习实践在第一代大学生的焦虑和学业自我效能中的作用†

与后代同龄人相比，第一代大学生在高等教育方面面临各种障碍。STEM教室中的主​​动学习做法可以通过提高学术自我效能或对学术能力的信心来缩小成就差距。但是，这些做法也会激起学生的焦虑感。考虑到焦虑会损害认知能力，我们试图了解第一代学生如何感知主动学习实践，以及这些感知是否会影响主动学习的预期收益。作为社区大学一级在解剖学和生理学课程中的教学实践研究的一部分，我们要求学生对各种积极的学习技术进行评分，以评估每种激起焦虑的程度以及对学习的贡献。所有学生（N = 186）都将某些技术比其他技术（例如，冷声呼叫）更能引起焦虑。但是，与后代学生相比，第一代学生的评分往往更高。第一代学生期望在课程中表现更差，最终成绩会更低。值得注意的是，采用主动学习方式并不能提高第一代学生的学业自我效能：到学期末，非白人第一代学生的学业自我效能下降，而其他学生则变化不大。在采用主动学习策略时，教师可能需要主动解决代表性不足的少数族裔学生的情感反应，并确保所有学生在课程中尽早通过这些实践获得成功，以此来增强学业自我效能感。