Faculty Perceptions about Barriers to Active Learning

Joel Michael

Analysis and Critique

Traditional Teacher’s Role

• Teacher in front of class• Writes on blackboard• Students write• Emphasizes rote memorization

• Memorize facts

• Students do not talk

Active Learning

• From Paper• “Active learning involves building,

testing, and repairing one’s mental model of what is being learned”

• What does this mean?

Active Learning

• Teacher interacts more with students• Get students involved in learning process• Ask questions• Class discussion on material• Emphasizes how to use knowledge• Use vivid examples

• Students more likely to remember

• Students tend to forget a lot of rote memorization!

Active Learning

• The author assumes this is a better teaching style

• Is it better?

• How would you measure this?

• Tests may reflect the teacher’s style

Active Learning

• Education is moving in this direction in U.S.• May be good for many business and

introductory courses

• Courses with advance math• This teaching style may be harder to apply• I usually spent a week trying to understand

advance mathematics

Active Learning

• Some courses require rote memorization• History

• Times, Names, Events, etc.

• Political Science• Structure of Gov., Leaders, etc.

• Higher level history and political science courses could use more active learning• Students need a foundation of basic knowledge

Active Learning

• Word used often is facilitated• Teacher facilitates learning• Used in University of Phoenix

Barriers to Active Learning

• Author lists many barriers to this teaching style• Student Barriers• Faculty Barriers• Pedagogical Barriers

• I critiqued some of them

Barriers to Active LearningStudents

• Students do not know how• Students do not know how to prepare

for lectures• Students will not do it• Student heterogeneity

• Heterogeneity means students have different ethnic and social backgrounds

• How?• Possible richer discussions

Barriers to Active LearningStudents

• Reason for barrier

• Students are used to traditional style of teaching since school• Rote memorization dominates

education in U.S.• Grades 1 – 12

Barriers to Active LearningFaculty

• Requires more preparation time• Teacher has less control of

classroom• Colleagues do not use this method

Barriers to Active LearningFaculty

• Poor student evaluations• From experience• Evaluations tend to correlate with the

grades• Better grades leads to better

evaluations

Barriers to Active LearningFaculty

• “Lack of teacher maturity”• Have no idea

• Usually teacher is more mature than students

• Faculty reward structure• Have no idea

• Teachers usually have fixed salaries• Could be bonus for good test scores

• Teachers do not know how to do it

Barriers to Active LearningPedagogical Issues

• Pedagogical – teaching• Classrooms do not lend to this style

• Classrooms are inanimate

• Takes too much time and content suffers

• Student assessment is more difficult• Give same tests

• Class size

Barriers to Active LearningPedagogical Issues

• Difficult to predict outcomes• Difficult to ensure “quality control”

• Each class, students learn the same material

Barriers to Active LearningPedagogical Issues

• Not enough resources• Teachers always complain about this

• Standard class times• A class is 50 minutes

Criticism

• Do you have any complaints about article?

• Is it a good article?

Criticism

• Author never defines active learning!• He gave some vague definition

• Psychologists are very good at doing this!

• Along with economists, etc.

Criticisms

• Valid Criticisms• Students are used to traditional style• Faculty are used to traditional style• As a person gets older, the less likely

they can change• Some faculty do not like questions

• Students may ask a question that the professor does not know

Criticisms

• “Quality Control”• Dynamics of classroom could change

with different students• I had classes that were fun and some

classes I did not like• Valid criticism

• Some criticisms are ludicrous!

Criticisms

• More preparation time• In the beginning, teachers may need

more time to prepare• As they get used to it, it becomes easier• Learning Curve

• Classroom size• Bigger the classroom, the more difficult• Also true for rote memorization

Criticisms

• If active learning works, then use it.

• It also depends on instructor’s personality

Barriers to Active LearningFaculty

• Teachers may not implement active learning

• U.S. Federal and states gov.s are passing laws• Many students are behind• Many U.S. schools are weak

• Laws make the teacher responsible for students’ scores on national tests• National tests

• Determine how well student’s scored compared to the national average

Barriers to Active LearningFaculty

• I do not like this• Forces teachers to emphasize test scores• Teacher has to focus on material for national

exam

• I do not think it is the teacher’s fault!

• Thus, teachers are not likely to switch to active learning

• Teachers are not likely to experiment with new method

• School is more worried about test scores.

References

• Michael, Joel. 2007. “Faculty Perceptions about Barriers to Active Learning.” College Teaching 55(2): 42-7.