Transcript The Interactive/Collaborative Classroom Environment

The
Interactive/Collaborative
Classroom Environment
Staff Development: Le Cordon Bleu, College of
Culinary Arts
Dr. Barbara Packer-Muti
Dr. Michael Simonson
Learning Outcomes
 Participants will be able to:




Describe & contrast cooperative learning,
collaborative learning, and active learning
Demonstrate examples of at least three
interactive classroom techniques
Discuss the responsibilities of the instructor
and the learner
Demonstrate at least two active listening
techniques
Out with the old…in with the new!
 Changing paradigms: The Old!
 Transferring knowledge from faculty to
students
 Filling passive empty vessels with knowledge
 Sorting students into categories
 Conducting education in a context of
impersonal relationships
 Maintaining a competitive structure
 Assume that content experts can
teach..without training to do so
The new paradigm
 Jointly constructed knowledge
 Students actively participate, discover
 Faculty develop students’ competencies and
talents
 Personal transactions
 Cooperative learning in the class & among
faculty
 Teaching requires training
Lectures: What’s wrong with them?
 Research shows


1. Students recall 70% of the material
covered in the 1st 10 mins; 20% of the material
in the last 10 minutes
2. Students are “tuned out” of a 50 minute
lecture about 40% of the time
One technique for your consideration
 Steps to building an cooperative class




Read the assigned material in advance
Instructor does a “highlights lecture” for the 1st
20 minutes
Students break into 3-5 groups to work on a
pre-determined, assigned problem
Reconvene class for a brief closing lecture
and common questions
Some Definitions:
 Active Learning
 Anything students do in a classroom other
than passively listen to a lecture
 Cooperative Learning
 Subset of active learning; groups of 3 or more
usually formally assigned, usually complex
tasks
 Collaborative Learning
 Instructor & students on equal footing working
on designing assignments, choosing texts,
presenting material
Techniques of Active Learning
 The One Minute Paper
 Muddiest (or Clearest) Point
 Affective Response
 Daily Journal
 Reading Quiz
 Clarification Pauses
 Response to a demonstration or other
teacher-centered activity
Class Activity!
 Form seven groups
 Hand out’s
 5 Minutes to prepare
 2 Minutes to present
 Summary
 Feedback/Critique
Ten Tips for Effective Teaching
 Teach according to your personality
 Hand out a complete syllabus and course instructions








on the first day
Vary your teaching methods
Let students choose their grades
Don’t take attendance
Take a hard line on late and incomplete work
Give students options for assignments
Require clear and coherent work
Combat plagiarism
Get out of the way!
What are your responsibilities?
 Content knowledge
 Clear messages
 Clarifying
 Constructive feedback
 Classroom management
 Other thoughts? What else?
What are “their” responsibilities?
 Active interest
 Responsible for their own learning
 Being “engaged”
 What else?
The Syllabus Exercise
 Hand out a sample




syllabus
Find a partner (or 2)
Work together to find 3
questions about the
course that are not
clear
Present!
Summary & feedback!
The Communication Process
 Effective communication is key!













The message
The source
Field of experience
Communication competence
Encoding/decoding
The channel
The receiver
Feedback
Shared Meaning/Reality
The effect
Noise
The relationship
The context/situation
Questions and Answers
Suggestions to “tweak” our questioning
techniques to increase student
involvement & comprehension
Wait Time
 Instructor poses question, then waits 15 or so
seconds.
 No hand raising or calling out
 Forces all students to think about the
question
 Ask for volunteers or call upon a student
 “Cold calls”
 “Warm calls”
Student Summary of Another’s
Answer
 Promotes active listening
 Call upon a second student to summarize the
first student’s response
 Benefits include active participation; students
must listen to one another; fosters the idea
that learning is shared
The Fish Bowl
 Students are given index cards
 Students asked to write one question re:
course materials (consider applications of the
material to practical contexts)
 Questions are deposited into the fish bowl
 Instructor chooses to respond or combines
the previous techniques discussed!
Quiz/Test Questions
 Students become involved in creating quizzes
or tests by constructing some (or all) test
items
 May be assigned as homework and may be
evaluated
 Instructor may use these as the basis for the
review
 May begin the process of considering higher
level thinking skills
Share/Pair
Grouping students in pairs provides
opportunities for sharing their own personal
viewpoints. It’s almost impossible for
someone to avoid participating in this sort of
environment.
One more activity!
 Get into a “pair”
90
80
70
 Choose one of the
60
50
following techniques:



Discussion
Note comparison
Evaluation of another
student’s work
Discuss and report back!
East
West
North
40
30
20
10
0
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr
100
50
0
1st
Qtr
3rd
Qtr
East
West
North
One more activity!
 Form a pair
 Choose one of the
following techniques




Discussion
Note comparison
Evaluation of another
student’s work
Report back to the
group!
Effective Listening!
 Be a model
 Increased knowledge of the subject at hand
 Greater self-confidence
 Improved relationships
Don’ts!
 Interrupts in mid-sentence or finishes the
sentence!
 Poor use of the thinking/speaking time
differential
 Changing the subject to fit the listener’s
agenda
 Talking while the speaker is talking
 Information overload
Non-verbal behaviors of poor listeners
 Signs of impatience
 Lacks direct eye contact
 Maintains a closed body position
 Fidgets
 Fakes attention
Do’s!
 Limit your own talking
 Ask questions/clarify
 Paraphrase
 Avoid interrupting
 Concentrate on the message/speaker
 Make positive comments
 Listen for the feelings behind the words
 Maintain control over your emotions
 Make an effort to listen
 Develop a Listening Challenge Plan
Listening Challenge Plan
 Name of person
 Reasons for difficulty
 Specific steps I will initiate
 How will I know I’ve achieved my goals?
7 Principles for Good Practice in
Undergraduate Education







Encourage student-faculty contact
Encourage cooperation among students
Encourage active learning
Give prompt feedback
Emphasize active learning
Communicate high expectations
Respect diverse talents and ways of learning

Chickering, A., & Gamson, Z. (1987).
Collegial Support Groups
 Definition:
Consists of 2-5 instructors who have the goal
of improving each others’ instructional
expertise and promoting each others’
professional growth
Keys to success in such groups
 Frequent professional discussions of
cooperative learning – successes are shared
& problems are solved
 Coplanning, codesigning, copreparing and
coevaluating curriculum materials relevant to
cooperative learning takes place
 Coteaching and reciprocal observations of
peers’ teaching lessons takes place
Leadership challenge!
 Challenging the status quo
 Inspiring a vision of what the school/college
can be
 Empowering through cooperative teams
 Leading by example
 Encouraging the heart
[email protected]
 Thank you for actively
listening!
 Email me with
questions/ideas
 See you again soon!