American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2007;71 (5)Article 85 and 2 practice-based faculty members.We believed doing RefeRences this added to the external validity of the Tool's usefulness Qualters DM.Do students want to be active?Scp by any trained observer.Ideally,any trained observer could use this tool to increase awareness ofteaching tech- 2.K hG.A2001 niques or perhaps stimulate change in the amount of active learning used in a classroom.Our reliability was ted minority students benefit most from generally good,however,the low number of episodes of active learning and th revisions made to the Active caching as reflective practice.Crric Sd 2002:3-57 al measure ol ag enenthadt. JA.Active Lear ng:Creating Excitement in tested this tool for use in a nd its There are a number of areas in which the Active s critical thinking. I Technol Edue 1995-7-22-30 Learning Inventory Tool requires further evaluation Its role as a basis for providing feedback to instructors should be investigated.One potential valuable contribu- 9.Bransford JD,Brown AL,Cocking RR.How V P. n:Brain tion would be as part of a peer-evaluation process to raise instructor awareness of their usage of active learning and ture rch or faculty devel arriers to t aming inall dis 93.5737-8 the sults in mprov student eain large classes CONCLUSION eat:http://www.poe.neu.cdu/ A valid and reliable tool to measure the type and s IC In search of how amount of active learning in large pharmacy classroom was developed.Use and testing of this tool will be people change.4m Psychol.1992:47:1102-14 expanded to other university disciplines and other colleges and schools of pharmacy.Most importantly,we hope to (PofesionalandOrganato2a20i6 lopment Network,http:// increase dialog about the use of effective techniques to improve student learning in institutions across the country 15.Amg TA,Cross KP.Clas :A ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6.Patton M. to Use Oualitative Me thods in Evaluation We would like to thank ou pert review rs Charle C.Bonwell.PhD.President. well Associates s and Bogdon R.Iklen s Pmofessor Emeritus ofHistory Eric H Hohson PhD Asso ciate Dean for Academic Affairs and Assessment at South University;and Linda B.Nilson,PhD,Director,Office of 8 Accountine Education Change Commission.Obiectives of ducation fo n statement number one.Issues Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson Univer sity,for their valuable feedback.We would also like to nting Education:Chartin thank Dr.Eric Hobson for the use of his active-learning let us 2000 lity an ns,the Nor Uni support thi and Dr. for critically reviewing the manuscnpt and 2 practice-based faculty members. We believed doing this added to the external validity of the Tool’s usefulness by any trained observer. Ideally, any trained observer could use this tool to increase awareness of teaching tech￾niques or perhaps stimulate change in the amount of active learning used in a classroom. Our reliability was generally good, however, the low number of episodes of active learning and the revisions made to the Active￾Learning Inventory Tool after each lecture did not allow us to calculate a formal measure of agreement. In addi￾tion, observers and instructors were not chosen randomly, nor blinded to the assessment. Lastly, we designed and tested this tool for use in a large class, and its appropri￾ateness for smaller settings still needs to be evaluated. There are a number of areas in which the Active￾Learning Inventory Tool requires further evaluation. Its role as a basis for providing feedback to instructors should be investigated. One potential valuable contribu￾tion would be as part of a peer-evaluation process to raise instructor awareness of their usage of active learning and facilitate change in teaching techniques. It may also serve as the foundation for future research or faculty devel￾opment programs to reduce barriers to the use of active learning in all disciplines and types of content. Lastly, we hope to explore the role of this tool as a change agent to increase use of active learning in large classes or to stim￾ulate a dialog that results in improved student learning in large classes. CONCLUSION A valid and reliable tool to measure the type and amount of active learning in large pharmacy classrooms was developed. Use and testing of this tool will be expanded to other university disciplines and other colleges and schools of pharmacy. Most importantly, we hope to increase dialog about the use of effective techniques to improve student learning in institutions across the country. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank our expert reviewers, Charles C. Bonwell, PhD, President, Bonwell Associates and Professor Emeritus of History; Eric H. Hobson PhD, Asso￾ciate Dean for Academic Affairs and Assessment at South University; and Linda B. Nilson, PhD, Director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson Univer￾sity, for their valuable feedback. We would also like to thank Dr. Eric Hobson for the use of his active-learning activities chart, the instructors who were kind enough to let us use their classes to test reliability and determine their perceptions, the Northeastern University Provost for the funding to support this work, and Dr. Jennifer Trujillo for critically reviewing the manuscript. REFERENCES 1. Qualters DM. Do students want to be active? J Scholarship Teach Learn. 2001;2:51-60. 2. Kuh G. Assessing what really matters to student learning: inside the national survey of student engagement. Change. 2001;33:10-7. 3. Wasley P. 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