Active Learning Strategies Jeevan Lectures: efficient means of exposing students to a body of knowledge shared orally or visually by an instructor Some students are texting or sleeping Many of them understand much of what youre saying but they never ask questions Access to information is no longer a barrier to learning but information is not synonymous with knowledge, so the key is a deeper understanding that allows for application, critical thinking, and problem solving What more can we do with class time to help ensure learning? Active Learning and Learner-Centered Educational Activities Students learn much more by doing things and getting feedback than by watching and listening to someone tell them what theyre supposed to know Think-Pair-Share Pose a question, scenario, or cognitive task Ask students to think about and jot down their answers Ask students to join one or two others sitting nearby and quickly share answers 1.When simply posing a question and calling on someone who raised his or her hand, other students do not get a chance to make the necessary cognitive effort to promote learning 2.Educational benefit to verbally sharing answers with a pair partner 3.Exposes students to wider range/perspectives and allows us to gauge the level of understanding 2 common mistakes (1) making exercises too long (more than three minutes) (2) calling for volunteers to respond after every activity Planning a flipped class In a flipped classroom students engage with lectures or other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom In a flipped classroom students engage with lectures or other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom Brainstorming Choose a strategic point in your class for brainstorming Decide exactly how much time youll allot to the brainstorming, and enforce it Present students with a question or issue that you want their ideas on Asks for tentative responses rather than declarative statements Use few minutes of silence for students to write down their ideas before hearing them Accept students input and organize it into logical groupings, if relevant 2 rules 1.Acknowledge every offering by writing it down 2.Dont allow judgements of any idea until brainstorming is over One-sentence summary Ungraded written in-class activity Enhances comprehension, writing skills, and can provide valuable written feedback Students should state the major point of an entire lecture or section in a limited amount of writing Ungraded quiz A short-term, non-threatening learning objective Provides a good feedback on students knowledge level Before a lecture to determine the level of knowledge End of the lecture 1.As a review and incentive for students to retain and comprehend information 2.Gauge how successful youve been in teaching the material Does it take a lot of class time ? Just a few minutes of activity in each class period will make a substantial difference in the learning that occurs in the class with at most a minor impact on the syllabus Does it take a lot of preparation? Preparing good lesson plans for a new course is a big task Adding activities to lesson plans will not take much time