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Deepening Student Engagement with Active Learning Strategies
ASV Annual Meeting ~ July 21, 2013
Debra Rudder Lohe, Ph.D.Director, Reinert Center
Saint Louis University
Session Overview
Examining Assumptions Yours, Mine, Ours
Understanding Active Learning What, Why, How
Making Choices Goals, Objectives, Philosophies
Session Goals
This session will . . .
Introduce a range of “active learning” strategies appropriate for varying types and sizes of classes
Provide examples of small, interactive lecture techniques for efficient student engagement
Prepare you to make decisions about active learning techniques appropriate for your context
Model active learning strategies I.e.,
make you do stuff!
Session Objectives
After this session you should be able to . . .
Identify a range of active learning strategies appropriate for your own teaching situation
Explain why interactive techniques are important for learning
Connect specific active learning strategies with your goals for student learning and engagement
Examining AssumptionsYours, Mine, Ours
Assumptions: You
You care about teaching
You may not have been taught how to teach
You’re busy! And you’ve got “coverage” issues
You want deeper learning from students “Think like a virologist” vs. “Regurgitate stuff I tell
you”
Students sometimes frustrate you And you sometimes frustrate them!
Assumptions: Teaching Virology There is a lot of content to “cover”
And it’s growing all the time?
The signature pedagogy is lecture Maybe with some discussion of primary literature
It happens in a lot of different contexts Graduate, undergraduate, and medical Small classes and large ones Labs, clinics, and other non-classroom “learning”
spaces
So . . .what assumptions do
you make about “active learning”?
It’s too time-consuming!It’s just about
entertaining
students.
It’s busy work (for me and for my students).
I can’t cover
enough
material and
do activities.
It won’t w
ork
for the
classes I
teach.
It is essential to real learning.
Assumptions: Active Learning Learning is “active”
Students learn more (and more deeply) when they’re engaged
Lots of things constitute “active learning” – and you may already be doing some of them
Even very small active learning exercises can make a difference
Active learning strategies can be applied in any size/type class
Understanding Active LearningWhat, Why, and How
The What: What is A.L.?
“anything that students do in the classroom other than merely
passively listening to an instructor’s lecture” (Paulson & Faust)
Active Learning activities are “instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they’re doing”
(Bonwell & Eison)
“Active learning means that the mind is actively engaged. Its defining characteristics are that students are dynamic participants in their learning and that they are reflecting on and
monitoring both the processes and the results of their learning.” (Barkley)
“The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the
learning process.”(Prince)
It’s an approach, not a specific method.
Suzanne M. Swiderski“Active Learning: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology” (2010)
The Why: What do cognitive psychologists say?
“. . . active learning involves the development of cognition, which is achieved by acquiring ‘organized knowledge structures’ and ‘strategies for remembering, understanding, and solving problems’ . . . . active learning entails a process of interpretation, whereby new knowledge is related to prior knowledge and stored in a manner that emphasizes the elaborated meaning of these relationships.”
So, for cognitive psychology, this means doing 3 key things:
1. Activating Prior Knowledge2. Chunking3. Practicing Meta-cognitive Awareness
The Why: How Learning Works
1. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning2. How they organize knowledge influences how they
learn and apply what they know.3. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they
do to learn.4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component
skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
5. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning.
6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.
Ambrose et al.
How Learning Works: What Matters
1. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning2. How they organize knowledge influences how they
learn and apply what they know.3. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they
do to learn.4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component
skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
5. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning.
6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.
Ambrose et al.
David A. SousaHow the Brain Learns (2000)
The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours)
2% Lecture4% Reading7% Audiovisual11% Demonstration18% Discussion Group27% Practice by Doing31% Teach Others
Immediate Use of Learning Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques
David A. SousaHow the Brain Learns (2000)
The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours)
2% Lecture4% Reading7% Audiovisual11% Demonstration18% Discussion Group27% Practice by Doing31% Teach Others
Immediate Use of Learning Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques
verbal processing
verbal + visual processing
doing / applying
The Why: We Want More than Recall
We want the so-called “higher-order” cognitive skills, not just repetition and regurgitation (à la Bloom)
Achieving higher levels of thinking requires students to do something, to engage actively in the learning process. Also, students learn best when they’re aware of where they are on this pyramid (meta-cognitive).
Sitting passively in class won’t promote higher-order thinking.
Neither will activities that only ask for remembering & understanding. (Caution: misalignment)
The How:
What “active learning” strategies do you already
use?
The How: How Do Others Do It?
Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative
Learning
The How: How Do Others Do It?
Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative
Learning
Interactive Lecturing
Feedback Lecture
Guided Lecture
Responsive Lecture
Pause Procedure
Lecture Quiz
ConcepTests
One-Minute Papers
Think / Pair / Share
Other: Discussion Mini-Cases “Flipped” Classroom
Making ChoicesGoals, Objectives, and Philosophies
Barriers?
Class size and/or type
Time (or lack of it!)
Student perceptions, motivation
Faculty perceptions, lack of knowledge
“Content tyranny” (Prince 2004)
Decisions?
Start with course goals and your student learning objectives for each lecture / lesson. What’s the difference?
Consider your teaching situation.
Reflect on your teaching philosophy and teaching style.
Tips for Getting Started: You Start small – a little goes a long way, and you
need different things at different times
Consider whether you really are “losing” something for content
Podcast lectures, have students doing things in class
Begin to let students help prepare / teach / model / demonstrate things in class
Tips for Getting Started: Them Provide rationale (so students know “why”)
Give them a little research on learning
Introduce Bloom; use to structure exams
Set expectation from the first day
Ask students to devise or propose activities
What’s the I D E A?
IDEA activity adapted from Feb 2010 issue of National Teaching and Learning Forum.
List all the concepts, ideas, points you can recall from this session.
1. Identify the most important idea for your teaching.
2. Describe / define why it’s important for you / your courses.
3. Elaborate new questions it raises / calls to mind.4. Apply the concept: how would you use it in
class?
Questions?Debie [email protected]
Bloom’s Taxonomy for Thinking
BLOOM (1956)
ANDERSON & KRATHWOHL (2001)
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4719
Goals vs. Objectives
COURSE GOALS
General, broad
About you/course
State what you or the course will do / teach
Describe hopes & ideals
for student learning
May describe kind of learning experience
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Specific, concrete
About students
State what students will know and/or be able to do
Describe observable, measurable actions
Can be cognitive, affective, or psychomotor
Teaching Situation
Teacher Learner
Subject
Class
Teaching Styles
Expert
Formal Authori
ty
Personal
Model
Facilitator
Delegator
Anthony F. Grasha, Teaching with Style (1996)