Deepening Student Engagement with Active Learning Strategies

ASV Annual Meeting ~ July 21, 2013

Debra Rudder Lohe, Ph.D.Director, Reinert Center

Saint Louis University

Session Overview

Examining Assumptions Yours, Mine, Ours

Understanding Active Learning What, Why, How

Making Choices Goals, Objectives, Philosophies

Session Goals

This session will . . .

Introduce a range of “active learning” strategies appropriate for varying types and sizes of classes

Provide examples of small, interactive lecture techniques for efficient student engagement

Prepare you to make decisions about active learning techniques appropriate for your context

Model active learning strategies I.e.,

make you do stuff!

Session Objectives

After this session you should be able to . . .

Identify a range of active learning strategies appropriate for your own teaching situation

Explain why interactive techniques are important for learning

Connect specific active learning strategies with your goals for student learning and engagement

Examining AssumptionsYours, Mine, Ours

Assumptions: You

You care about teaching

You may not have been taught how to teach

You’re busy! And you’ve got “coverage” issues

You want deeper learning from students “Think like a virologist” vs. “Regurgitate stuff I tell

you”

Students sometimes frustrate you And you sometimes frustrate them!

Assumptions: Teaching Virology There is a lot of content to “cover”

And it’s growing all the time?

The signature pedagogy is lecture Maybe with some discussion of primary literature

It happens in a lot of different contexts Graduate, undergraduate, and medical Small classes and large ones Labs, clinics, and other non-classroom “learning”

spaces

So . . .what assumptions do

you make about “active learning”?

It’s too time-consuming!It’s just about

entertaining

students.

It’s busy work (for me and for my students).

I can’t cover

enough

material and

do activities.

It won’t w

ork

for the

classes I

teach.

It is essential to real learning.

Assumptions: Active Learning Learning is “active”

Students learn more (and more deeply) when they’re engaged

Lots of things constitute “active learning” – and you may already be doing some of them

Even very small active learning exercises can make a difference

Active learning strategies can be applied in any size/type class

Understanding Active LearningWhat, Why, and How

The What: What is A.L.?

“anything that students do in the classroom other than merely

passively listening to an instructor’s lecture” (Paulson & Faust)

Active Learning activities are “instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they’re doing”

(Bonwell & Eison)

“Active learning means that the mind is actively engaged. Its defining characteristics are that students are dynamic participants in their learning and that they are reflecting on and

monitoring both the processes and the results of their learning.” (Barkley)

“The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the

learning process.”(Prince)

It’s an approach, not a specific method.

Suzanne M. Swiderski“Active Learning: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology” (2010)

The Why: What do cognitive psychologists say?

“. . . active learning involves the development of cognition, which is achieved by acquiring ‘organized knowledge structures’ and ‘strategies for remembering, understanding, and solving problems’ . . . . active learning entails a process of interpretation, whereby new knowledge is related to prior knowledge and stored in a manner that emphasizes the elaborated meaning of these relationships.”

So, for cognitive psychology, this means doing 3 key things:

1. Activating Prior Knowledge2. Chunking3. Practicing Meta-cognitive Awareness

The Why: How Learning Works

1. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning2. How they organize knowledge influences how they

learn and apply what they know.3. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they

do to learn.4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component

skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.

5. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning.

6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.

7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Ambrose et al.

How Learning Works: What Matters

1. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning2. How they organize knowledge influences how they

learn and apply what they know.3. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they

do to learn.4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component

skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.

5. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning.

6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.

7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Ambrose et al.

David A. SousaHow the Brain Learns (2000)

The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours)

2% Lecture4% Reading7% Audiovisual11% Demonstration18% Discussion Group27% Practice by Doing31% Teach Others

Immediate Use of Learning Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques

David A. SousaHow the Brain Learns (2000)

The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours)

2% Lecture4% Reading7% Audiovisual11% Demonstration18% Discussion Group27% Practice by Doing31% Teach Others

Immediate Use of Learning Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques

verbal processing

verbal + visual processing

doing / applying

The Why: We Want More than Recall

We want the so-called “higher-order” cognitive skills, not just repetition and regurgitation (à la Bloom)

Achieving higher levels of thinking requires students to do something, to engage actively in the learning process. Also, students learn best when they’re aware of where they are on this pyramid (meta-cognitive).

Sitting passively in class won’t promote higher-order thinking.

Neither will activities that only ask for remembering & understanding. (Caution: misalignment)

The How:

What “active learning” strategies do you already

use?

The How: How Do Others Do It?

Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative

Learning

The How: How Do Others Do It?

Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative

Learning

Interactive Lecturing

Feedback Lecture

Guided Lecture

Responsive Lecture

Pause Procedure

Lecture Quiz

ConcepTests

One-Minute Papers

Think / Pair / Share

Other: Discussion Mini-Cases “Flipped” Classroom

Making ChoicesGoals, Objectives, and Philosophies

Barriers?

Class size and/or type

Time (or lack of it!)

Student perceptions, motivation

Faculty perceptions, lack of knowledge

“Content tyranny” (Prince 2004)

Decisions?

Start with course goals and your student learning objectives for each lecture / lesson. What’s the difference?

Consider your teaching situation.

Reflect on your teaching philosophy and teaching style.

Tips for Getting Started: You Start small – a little goes a long way, and you

need different things at different times

Consider whether you really are “losing” something for content

Podcast lectures, have students doing things in class

Begin to let students help prepare / teach / model / demonstrate things in class

Tips for Getting Started: Them Provide rationale (so students know “why”)

Give them a little research on learning

Introduce Bloom; use to structure exams

Set expectation from the first day

Ask students to devise or propose activities

What’s the I D E A?

IDEA activity adapted from Feb 2010 issue of National Teaching and Learning Forum.

List all the concepts, ideas, points you can recall from this session.

1. Identify the most important idea for your teaching.

2. Describe / define why it’s important for you / your courses.

3. Elaborate new questions it raises / calls to mind.4. Apply the concept: how would you use it in

class?

Questions?Debie Lohedlohe@slu.edu

Bloom’s Taxonomy for Thinking

BLOOM (1956)

ANDERSON & KRATHWOHL (2001)

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4719

Goals vs. Objectives

COURSE GOALS

General, broad

About you/course

State what you or the course will do / teach

Describe hopes & ideals

for student learning

May describe kind of learning experience

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Specific, concrete

About students

State what students will know and/or be able to do

Describe observable, measurable actions

Can be cognitive, affective, or psychomotor

Teaching Situation

Teacher Learner

Subject

Class

Teaching Styles

Expert

Formal Authori

ty

Personal

Model

Facilitator

Delegator

Anthony F. Grasha, Teaching with Style (1996)