Title: The CLEAR Framework to Implement Active Learning in STEM Education
Abstract: The practices of active learning in STEM classrooms have been slow despite the rapidly accumulating research evidence. Effectively translating this new paradigm into teaching activities requests some actionable course design framework that can explicitly guide the implementation of active learning by teachers. This paper presents a novel conceptual framework – CLEAR (Create, Learn, Extend, Apply, and Remember) – to promote and implement active learning in undergraduate-level STEM classrooms and to foster digital change of faculty development programs. The CLEAR framework has both the theory layer and the practice layer. CLEAR template courses are introduced as online faculty development method, and its nested course structure will allow learners to experience active learning at both the course and the lesson level.