Active Learning

Jenny KnightUniversity of Colorado, Boulder

Mays ImadPima Community College

Thanks to previous contributors: Peggy Brickman, Clarissa Dirks, Jo Handelsman, Bill Wood

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

Learning Goal: Understand and be able to use active learning in your classroom.

Critical thinking skills

Science content knowledge

Think like a scientistExpertise

New connections

Participation

Engagement

Attention

The Roles of Active Learning

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. Creativity2. Computer skills3. GPA, cutoff above 3.04. Leadership skills5. Problem-solving skills6. Teamwork skills7. Verbal communication skills8. Written communication skills

1. Creativity2. Computer skills3. GPA, cutoff above 3.04. Leadership skills5. Problem-solving skills 6. Teamwork skills7. Verbal communication skills8. Written communication skills

80.6% 75.3% 74.7% 74.2%

GPA, cutoff> 3.020%

National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2012)

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!

LearningGoals and Objectives

Students Demonstrate Mastery

Active Learning

Formative

assessment

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?

Objective 1:Identify key features of active

learning

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?

LearnerCentered

InstructorCentered

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

Objective 1:Identify key features of active

learning

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

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

What are the key elements of an active (learner-centered) class?

Common Feature: All students in the classroom need to do something, construct knowledge.

Objective 2:Develop a repertoire of

“EnGauging” activities (Engage as well as Gauge)

Some examples of EnGauging Methods

Think, pair, share

Personal response systems (Clickers)

Case Studies and Problem-Based Learning

Game-based learning

Group Problem Solving

Modeling

One minute questions (Muddiest Point)

Concept mapping

EnGauging Activities:Try your hand “activizing” one of the topics on page 1 of the handout

Each table, pick a topic and take the approach below:

Group 1: puts students in a teaching role Group 2: involves maximum participationGroup 3: makes new connectionsGroup 4: demonstrates critical analysis/thinkingGroup 5: encourages exploration of new ideasGroup 6: focuses on a science skills (ie, designing experiments, interpreting data)

10 minutes

Each table, share your topic and your approach

Objective 3:Identify strategies that are useful

for implementation of active learning

Implementation is key!

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

Example: implementing clicker questions

What did I do to engage you?

Start with a question that is challenging or addresses common misconceptions 1. Students take individual vote2. 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 answers5. 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

Mazur, 1997

Clicker Question Cycle

Another strategy for implementation:5E Instructional Model

EngagementExplorationExplanationElaborationEvaluation

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?

Objective 4:Examine reasons for student

resistance and plan for addressing resistance

Active learning and student buy-in

5 stages of grief

Do you have fears about using more active learning?

National surveys of faculty show increasing use of cooperative learning and group work, at least partly replacing lecture

1989

-1990

1992

-1993

1995

-1996

1998

-1999

2001

-2002

2004

-2005

2007

-2008

2010

-2011

0102030405060708090

100

Extensive lec-turing

Cooperative learning (small groups)

Group projects

Higher Education Research Institute Faculty Survey

% o

f res

pond

ents

Year

Students report significant, and increasing, experience with in-class group workreplacing lecture

Higher Education Research Institute Faculty Survey

% o

f res

pond

ents

Year

2000 2005 20120%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Very OftenOftenSometimesNever

0%10%20%30%40%

Lectures

Class dis-cussions

Experiential

Small-group work

Profile of the American College Student, Spring 2011

Students recognize that they learn best in ways that might not be preferred, small-group work is not highly regarded

Objective 4:Examine reasons for student

resistance and plan for addressing resistance

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.

Objective 4:Examine reasons for student

resistance and plan for addressing resistance

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 TaylorBiochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, v. 39 (3), 219-220 (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 PracticesScientific 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

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 (bcouch2@unl.edu) or Mary Durham (mdurham2@unl.edu) with more information.

Are you interested in such a tool?

• 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!

A Recap of Key Concepts about Active Learning