Active Learning in Action!Presented by

Cynthia Henry & Kimberly Vardeman

Texas Library Association Annual Conference

April 16, 2010

Active Learning

• Defined by Bonwell and Eison:

“. . . as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing” (Bonwell et al. 1991).

LIBR 1100

• Decided to move away from traditional lecture-style model classroom

• Team taught by two instructors

• Face to face with an online component

• One hour credit course

• Class of 30 freshmen

• Perfect size for active learning activities

Learning Activities Tested

• Class discussion

• Brainstorming

• Interactive website tutorial

• Group activities

• Think – Pair – Share

Think – Pair – Share

• King defined think – pair – share as:

“Students individually think for a moment about a question posed on the lecture, then pair up with a classmate beside them to share/discuss their thoughts” (King 1993).

Portrait – Active Learning Activity

• Each student created a self-portrait using graphics painting program (MS Paint)

• Posted digital image of their artistic endeavor to the online class discussion board

• Students given instructions and a step-by-step demonstration

Portrait – Active Learning Activity

Portrait – Active Learning Activity

Portrait – Active Learning Activity

Portrait – Results

• Very Successful

• Students used discussion board as a chat tool

• Class of 30 created 117 messages

• Students didn’t want to leave at the end of class

Thesis – Active Learning Activity

• Brainstorming activity in groups of four

• Topics• Keywords• Topic Questions• Create Thesis Statement

Thesis – Results

• This activity was problematic

• Students were lost

• Instructors walked around the room and helped groups organize

• Active learning still seemed treacherous

Table – Active Learning Activity

Information Piece Time Frame Who is interested in this information?

Who creates this information?

Press Release Example: Same Day General Public Reporters

Newspaper

Popular Magazine

Scholarly Journal

Books

Information Cycle

Table – Results

• Activity was successful

• Information cycle is a hard concept

• With the table activity, students internalized the information cycle lesson

• In post-assessment, all students correctly answered the information cycle question

Citation Tutorial – Active Learning Activity

Citation Tutorial – Active Learning Activity

Citation Tutorial - Results

• Students enjoyed activity

• Could distinguish between citations of books, journals, and newspapers

• Students referenced tutorial throughout semester

• In post-assessment, all students correctly identified the parts of a citation

Final Review Packet

Students worked in teams to complete

the following activities:

•Multiple-choice review questions

•Searched for articles on given topic

•Used citations to locate specific articles

•Citation “puzzles”

Final Review Packet - Results

• Successfully completed review activities

• Students taught one another and verified each other’s work

• Created great class discussions

Conclusion

• Active learning achieved the goals of engaging the students, increasing student-teacher interaction, and integrating different learning styles into lesson plans.

• Instructors learned to include written and verbal instructions with demonstrations or examples

• Scores increased 15% from the pre-assessment to the post-assessment

• 22 students improved their grade on the post-assessment

References

Bonwell, Charles C., James A. Eison, Washington D. C. Eric Clearinghouse on Higher Education, and Washington D. C. George Washington Univ. 1991. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. ERIC Digest.

Grubb, Jonathon, and Iellen R. Miller. 2009. Eastern Washington University Research Tutorial. Eastern Washington University2009]. Available from http://support.library.ewu.edu/reference/tutorial/flash/citation.html.

King, Alison. 1993. From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side. College Teaching 41 (1):30-35.

Contact

Cynthia Henry, cynthia.henry@ttu.edu

Kimberly Vardeman, kimberly.vardeman@ttu.edu

View the slides @ http://slideshare.net/kimberlyvardeman