Transcript Active Learning Session (Download Slides)

Active Learning
Jenny Knight
University of Colorado, Boulder
Mays Imad
Pima Community College
Thanks to previous contributors: Peggy Brickman, Clarissa Dirks, Jo Handelsman,
Bill Wood
Learning Goal: Understand and be able
to use active learning in your
classroom.
Learning objectives for this session:
Participants will be able to:
1. Recognize the key features of active learning
2. Develop a repertoire engaging activities
3. Identify strategies that are useful for implementation of
active learning
4. Examine reasons for student resistance and plan for
addressing resistance
The Roles of Active Learning
Think like a scientist
Expertise
Critical thinking skills
New
connection
s
Science content
knowledge
Participation
Engagement
Attention
Answer this question, thinking of
what you value in education
What is the most important goal of a college
education and, therefore, individual college courses?
A. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
B.
Learning how to use information and knowledge in
new situations
C. Developing lifelong learning skills
First-day questions for the learner-centered classroom, G.A.
Smith, National Teaching and Learning Forum, Sept. 2008
How do you think undergraduate
students answer this question?
What is the most important goal of a college
education and, therefore, individual college courses?
A. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
B.
Learning how to use information and knowledge in
new situations
C. Developing lifelong learning skills
First-day questions for the learner-centered classroom, G.A.
Smith, National Teaching and Learning Forum, Sept. 2008
How students actually answer this
question
What is the most important goal of a college
education and, therefore, individual college courses?
A. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
10%
B.
Learning how to use information and knowledge in
new situations 34%
C. Developing lifelong learning skills 45%
(n = 1301)
First-day questions for the learner-centered classroom, G.A.
Smith, National Teaching and Learning Forum, Sept. 2008
How students at Pima Community
College answered this question
What is the most important goal of a college
education and, therefore, individual college courses?
A. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
13% (8)
B.
Learning how to use information and knowledge in
new situations 42% (26)
C. Developing lifelong learning skills 45% (28)
(n=62, Pima Community College First day of class Bio 201, F ‘13, S ’14)
How important is it, to you, to develop
skills in your coursework that will help
you land a job when you graduate?
Can you pick which four in the following list are among
the top 5 most desired characteristics among recent
college graduates as reported by hiring companies?
1. Creativity
2. Computer skills
3. GPA, cutoff above 3.0
4. Leadership skills
5. Problem-solving skills
6. Teamwork skills
7. Verbal communication skills
8. Written communication skills
1. Creativity
2. Computer skills
3. GPA, cutoff above 3.0
80.6%
4. Leadership skills
5. Problem-solving skills
6. Teamwork skills
7. Verbal communication skills
8. Written communication skills
National Association of Colleges and
Employers, 2012)
75.3%
74.7%
74.2%
GPA,
cutoff
> 3.0
20%
*
*
*
*
*
*
* =
employer-desired skill that matches a
learning outcome for this course
National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2012)
Active Learning: the fun part of teaching!
Learning
Goals and
Objectives
Active
Learning
Students
Demonstrate
Mastery
Which of the following best describes you
when it comes to active learning?
A. I am confident in my implementation of active
learning and am looking for new cool ideas to try.
B. I am confident in a few active learning strategies
but need some help with implementing new
strategies.
C. I have tried active learning, but I wasn’t satisfied
with how well I implemented it.
D. I more or less know what active learning means,
but I need to see how it works in a real classroom.
E. Everybody is talking about it, but I’m not so clear
on what it really means.
Picture your own classroom . . .
What are students doing?
Brainstorm!
What kinds of active learning methods are
you familiar with or do you already use?
Write your ideas on your flipchart or white board
We will refer back to them soon
What are the key elements of an active
(learner-centered) class?
Passive
vs.
Active
Think about the characteristics that distinguish a passive
class from an active class. What are students and instructors
doing differently in these classrooms?
As you think about this….
Reflect on your own teaching.
On average, how learner-centered is your
classroom?
Learner
Centered
Instructor
Centered
At the front of the room, we have this continuum on a
white board. Come up and place a post-it on the spot
that represents where you feel you currently fall in your
approach to teaching
Observations
Raise your hand if you have observed
someone teaching.
Keep your hands up if this teacher used
active learning.
Keep your hands up if you were able to
question this teacher about how they
structured the class.
Observation (both being and doing) are extremely helpful in
understanding what active learning looks like
Example 1
Tessa Andrews, University of Georgia
What were students primarily doing in
Example 1?
A. Listening to a speaker (possibly taking notes)
B. Thinking about a question or problem
C. Writing or drawing out their response to a problem
D. Discussing, debating, arguing ideas with others
E. More than one of the above
Additional videos are posted on page 4 of the handout
What was the instructor primarily doing in
Example 1?
A. Presenting content or conducting a demonstration
B. Exchanging ideas with the most engaged students
only
C. Posing a problem and hearing answers from most
students
D. Facilitating group work by listening in on
discussions
E. More than one of the above
Example 2
Mara Evans, University of Georgia
What were students primarily doing in
Example 2?
A. Listening to a speaker (possibly taking notes)
B. Thinking about a question or problem
C. Writing or drawing out their response to a problem
D. Discussing, debating, arguing ideas with others
E. More than one of the above
Additional videos are posted on page 2 of the handout
What was the instructor primarily doing in
Example 2?
A. Presenting content or conducting a demonstration
B. Exchanging ideas with the most engaged students
only
C. Posing a problem and hearing answers from most
students
D. Facilitating group work by listening in on
discussions
E. More than one of the above
What are the key elements of an active
(learner-centered) class?
From what you’ve just observed (and what you
already practice), let’s summarize the key
elements:
• Write down (individually) what you think are 3
main features of active learning
• Discuss with your table
• Share
Common Feature: All students in the
classroom need to do something, construct
knowledge.
Some examples of EnGauging Methods
Think, pair, share
Modeling
Personal response
systems (Clickers)
One minute questions
(Muddiest Point)
Case Studies and
Problem-Based
Learning
Concept mapping
Game-based learning
Group Problem Solving
EnGauging Activities:
Try your hand “activizing” one of the topics on page 1 of
the handout
10 minutes
Each table, pick a topic and take the approach below:
Group 1: puts students in a teaching role
Group 2: involves maximum participation
Group 3: makes new connections
Group 4: demonstrates critical analysis/thinking
Group 5: encourages exploration of new ideas
Group 6: focuses on a science skills (ie, designing
experiments, interpreting data)
Each table, share your topic and your approach
Example:
implementing clicker
questions
dominant
recessive
Imagine that earlobe attachment is
dictated by a single gene (a
simplification), yielding two traits:
unattached and attached.
Unattached earlobes are due to the
dominant allele (top picture)
Attached earlobes are due to the
recessive allele (bottom picture)
From this information, you can
conclude:
a. Attached earlobes are seen less
frequently than unattached
earlobes in a population
b. Attached earlobes are seen more
frequently than unattached
earlobes in a population
c. Either phenotype could be seen
more frequently in a population:
you need more information
What did I do to engage you?
Clicker Question Cycle
Mazur, 1997
Start with a question that is challenging or addresses
common misconceptions
1. Students take individual vote
2. Students engage in peer discussion (discuss ideas for
their votes with each other)
3. Students re-vote
4. Instructor calls for volunteer or uses random call:
students explain reasoning behind their answers
5. Instructor shows histogram and discusses correct
answer only after discussion
Many examples of best practices with clickers:
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html
Another strategy for implementation:
5E Instructional Model
Engagement
Exploration
Explanation
Elaboration
Evaluation
Look at the definitions of these “E”s (handout)
With your table:
Discuss how each “E” is important to student learning
and why this particular order works well
What other factors should you consider in
implementation?
Active learning and student buy-in
5 stages of grief
 Do you have fears about using more active
learning?
% of respondents
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Extensive
lecturing
Cooperative
learning (small
groups)
Group projects
Year
Higher Education Research
Institute Faculty Survey
% of respondents
100%
80%
Very Often
Often
Sometimes
Never
60%
40%
20%
0%
2000
2005
Year
2012
Higher Education Research
Institute Faculty Survey
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Lectures
Class discussions
Experiential
Small-group
work
Which style of
Through which style
classroom learning of classroom learning
do you most prefer?
do you think you
learn the most?
Profile of the American College Student, Spring 2011
Everyone choose one slip of paper from the
center of the table with a student barrier
written on it.
Think about an example where you have seen
this resistance
Go around the group, sharing your barrier
and example. Choose your 3 top barriers as a
table.
Handout (p. 4) : a table for you to address
student resistance to active learning.
Read through the Potential Solutions.
Work in pairs to find solutions to your top 2-3
student barriers.
Go around the group, sharing your solutions.
Share out your best solution to the whole
group.
“Top 10 reasons students dislike working in small
groups … and why I do it anyway”
Ann Taylor
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, v. 39 (3), 219220 (2012)
“Coping with Hitchhikers and Couch Potatoes on
Teams”
From, Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams, by B.
Oakley, R. Felder, R. Brent, and I. Elhajj,. J. Student Centered
Learning, 2(1), 9–34 (2004).
How do we know if we are doing well at active
learning? Measuring Scientific Teaching Practices
The Summer Institute is based on the Scientific Teaching pedagogy
The Scientific Teaching Taxonomy is a tool that defines the
pedagogical goals and supporting practices of the Scientific Teaching
pedagogical framework
Scientific Teaching Taxonomy
Measuring Scientific Teaching Practices
Scientific Teaching Practices Survey
 taken online by both instructors and students
 designed to measure the frequency of Scientific Teaching
practices in a course
 based on the Taxonomy
Are you interested in such a tool?
We are recruiting volunteers!
 Survey Development:
 Provide feedback on survey questions
 Be interviewed while taking the survey
for feedback on survey questions
 Participate in Research:
 Fall 2015 and beyond (complete survey, administer survey to
students, allow observations of course, etc)
Look for a follow-up email from Brian Couch
([email protected]) or Mary Durham ([email protected])
with more information.
A Recap of Key Concepts about Active Learning
• Learner-centered classrooms are places where students are
guided by a facilitator as they engage and construct their
own knowledge with facilitation.
•
There is overwhelming evidence that active learning is an
effective method for student learning.
• It does not take a tremendous amount of effort to move a
classroom from passive to active.
• There are many tools for implementing active learning.
• It is way more fun to create learning environments that
reflect the process of science!