Active Learning Strategies

Emad Mansour

3 /3/ 2012

Engaging Students in Learning:

Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellows Program

Follow up workshop

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

Goals

“Instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing."

Bonwell and Eison (1991)

What is active learning?

(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.

Active learning is built upon two basic assumptions:

(Gardner, 1983)

• 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

The 7 principles of excellent teaching:

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

• Question to group• Write a question • Write a response to a question

Some individual Active Learning Strategies Some individual Active Learning Strategies

• Write an example• What do you do next?• One minute paper • The muddiest point• Voting• One page lecture summaries• Paraphrasing• List pros and cons• Daily or weekly journal

Some individual Active Learning Strategies Some individual Active Learning Strategies

• Think-pair-share• Demonstrations• Brainstorming• Role playing• Buzz groups• Fishbowls• Jigsaw• Debate • Simulations, games

Some Group/Collaborative ALS Some Group/Collaborative ALS

Active Learning Continuum 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

(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.

Jigsaw Teamwork

Questions and questioning

Case study

Debate

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

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 yourself6- Give open-ended questions more frequently7- Repeat student’s question8- Praise the student for his/her participation 9- Always conclude with the correct answer

DOs:

DOs and DON’Ts when asking questionsDON’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 alphabetically7- Embarrass students who do not get the right answer 8- Give possible answers or options9- Turn your back to student when he/she starts answering. 10- Stand close to the students when they start answering11- 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 Negative Team

AUDIENCE

Judge (student) Judge

(student)

Debate

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

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.

Case Study

• What do you think the possible reasons for missing plants in this field?

• What you will do to solve the problem?

Advantages and disadvantages for- Students- Professor

Active Learning 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

AL Strategies for Use in Large Classes (cont’d)

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=1J1URbdisYEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReefNPdZwVo

From professor’s point of view

• 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

Barriers to using ALS

For successful ALS application: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

Final Tips Start Small Start early Plan Experiment Expect resistance Practice, practice, practice Play! Use different strategies Evaluate Adjust

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Thank you

Emad MansourBiggio Center, RBD Libraryeam0028@auburn.edu