Transcript Slide 1

Engaging Students
in Learning:
Active Learning Strategies
Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellows Program
Follow up workshop
Emad Mansour
3 /3/ 2012
Goals
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
 Describe a number of Active Learning
Strategies
 Apply a number of Active Learning Strategies
What is active learning?
“Instructional activities involving students in
doing things and thinking about what they are
doing."
Bonwell and Eison (1991)
Active learning is built upon two basic
assumptions:
(a) that learning is by nature an active endeavor
Active learning is built upon two basic
assumptions:
(b) that different people learn in different ways.
(Gardner, 1983)
The 7 principles of excellent teaching:
• Encourages student-Instructor contact
• Encourages cooperation among student
• Encourages active learning
• Give prompt feedback
• Emphasizes time on task
• Communicates high expectation
• Respect diverse talents/ways of learning
Introduction:
Gain Attention
Direction:
know exactly what they
are to do
Activity:
to acquire the knowledge,
skills, attitudes
Practice and
feedback
Retention and
transfer: of new
learning
Some individual Active Learning Strategies
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Question to group
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Write a question
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Write a response to a question
Some individual Active Learning Strategies
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Write an example
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What do you do next?
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One minute paper
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The muddiest point
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Voting
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One page lecture summaries
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Paraphrasing
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List pros and cons
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Daily or weekly journal
Some Group/Collaborative ALS
• Think-pair-share
• Demonstrations
• Brainstorming
• Role playing
• Buzz groups
• Fishbowls
• Jigsaw
• Debate
• Simulations, games
Active Learning Continuum
Presentations, debates, role playing activities
Small group interaction
Having students engage in writing activities followed by
Instructor use of discussion
Instructor use of questions to engage students in personal exploration of material
Asking questions at appropriate times during presentation
Monitoring one's level of understanding and writing questions in notes when confused
Making sustained effort to take non literal notes (paraphrasing)
Sitting in class inattentively (episodes of daydreaming and periods of attentiveness to
lecture, listening occasionally and taking literal notes)
Piccinin, 2009
Think-Pair-Share
• The teacher asks a question or presents a
problem
• Every student think individually for 30-45
seconds.
• Students exchange ideas in pairs
• Students share their ideas with another pair of
students or with the whole class
• Can be applied in any class size
Buzz Groups
 Students subdivided into smaller groups of 3–4
 Groups may be assigned same or different topic
to discuss.
 After about 20 minutes of discussion, one
member of each sub-group presents the
findings of the sub-group to the whole group.
One Minute Paper
• A few minutes before end of class,
Professor asks students to take a clean sheet of
paper (no name) and answer these two questions:
1- What was the most important thing you learned
during this class?
2- What important question remains unanswered?
The Muddiest Point
 Near end of lecture ask students to write what is
least clear (muddiest) after today’s lecture/class.
 Students hand in sheets without names – similar
to One Minute Paper- or use collection box
 Teacher identifies the most difficult aspects and
elaborates more on these points, at beginning of
next class
Jigsaw Teamwork
(1) a general topic is divided into smaller,
interrelated pieces (4-5) “Home groups”.
(2) each member of a team is assigned to read and
become an expert on a different piece of the
puzzle (individually or in "Expert Group“).
(3) Individual experts from each part teach the
other team members about that puzzle piece.
Questions and questioning
Debate
Case study
Questions and Questioning
• Use at the beginning of the lecture to attract attention
(interest approach)
• Use during lecture to explain materials in more depth
• Use during and at end of lecture to check for comprehensive
DOs and DON’Ts when asking questions
DOs:
1- Stimulate students thinking
2- Continuously evaluate students’ learning
3- Present question clearly so student is not confused
4- Present the same question to different students
5- Wait a few seconds before you answer it yourself
6- Give open-ended questions more frequently
7- Repeat student’s question
8- Praise the student for his/her participation
9- Always conclude with the correct answer
DOs and DON’Ts when asking questions
DON’Ts:
1- Use the question for punishment/ embarrassing
2- Over use close-ended questions (yes/no), follow with WHY
3- Direct question to a specific person (unless….)
4- Let students answer right away.
5- Point with index finger to a student when asking
6- Direct question based on students seating or alphabetically
7- Embarrass students who do not get the right answer
8- Give possible answers or options
9- Turn your back to student when he/she starts answering.
10- Stand close to the students when they start answering
11- Focus questions on specific part of the lecture
Debate
A process of considering multiple viewpoints and arriving
at a Judgment
- one-on-one debate.
- team debates
• Assign teams: Affirmative team & the Negative team
• Arguments from both sides need to be supported with
facts and examples.
• Clarify with students how they will be Judged (Rubric)
• May be used as assessment or a summative activity
(Freeley & Steinberg, 2005)
Affirmative Team
Debate
Judge
(student)
Negative Team
Judge
(student)
AUDIENCE
Case study
Help students analyze, critique, make judgments,
speculate, express reasoned opinions, articulate
their point of view, listen to others, bring about
consensus, summarize, and then present their
findings and their decisions.
• Cases must be written
• Relate to learning objectives
• Real or invented, but realistic and believable
• Enough to be credible, but not so complete
• Provide ( 2-3) questions
• Often there is not a “correct” decision.
• Not a yes or not issue
Case Study
You walked into a large field of a wheat 3 weeks after
planting and noticed that there were lots of missing
plants. You questioned the owner (Mr. Johns) as to the
watering, fertilizer, and planting date. You learn the
plants rain were not somewhat sufficient, plants
received fertilizer at planting. Mr. John told you that he
bought the seeds from a neighbor who was storing these
seeds from last year and they had a bit of insect
infestation. The farmer also chose use only minimum
plowing to avoid soil erosion.
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What do you think the possible reasons for
missing plants in this field?
What you will do to solve the problem?
Active Learning in
Large Classes
Advantages and disadvantages for
- Students
- Professor
AL Strategies for Use in Large Classes
• Ice Breakers/Get Acquainted Activities/Getting to
Know Others
• Have students meet those in rows behind/in front
• Ask students to write an example
• Ask a question
• Ask students to write a question
AL Strategies for Use in Large Classes (cont’d)
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Voting
Demonstrations
One minute paper
The muddiest point
Brainstorming
Buzz groups
Think-pair-share
Active Learning in Large Classes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J1URbdisYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReefNPdZwVo
Barriers to using ALS
From professor’s point of view
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Fear of trying something new
Lecture time is short
Large number of students in the class
Lack of equipment or facilities
Fear of lack of students’ participation
Difficulty to create assignment that use higher-order
thinking skills
Need to cover content
Students will not learn enough
Lack of experience is managing discussion
Fear of peer critique for going against norms
Fear of losing control of class
………….
Barriers to using ALS
b) From students’ point of view
For successful ALS application:
 Clear link to class/course objectives
 Use appropriate strategy for each topic
 Clarity of instructions (before “GO”)
 Control over process (stop signal)
 Flexibility of outcomes
 Good follow up during application
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Final Tips
Start Small
Start early
Plan
Experiment
Expect resistance
Practice, practice, practice
Play!
Use different strategies
Evaluate
Adjust
Thank you
Emad Mansour
Biggio Center, RBD Library
[email protected]
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