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Revising the large lecture class

This article discusses the benefits of implementing active learning techniques in large lecture classes with over 100 students. It explores how active learning improves student learning, makes the classroom more interesting, and offers strategies to start implementing these techniques. The article also provides an example of how a geology class improved student engagement through active learning strategies.

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Revising the large lecture class

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  1. Revising the large lecture class • How do active learning techniques work in classes with over 100 students?

  2. Why do it? • Active learning improves student learning • It makes the classroom more interesting/less predictable (it can improve attendance) • It keeps you from getting “stale”

  3. How to start: course goals Ex: • …synthesize a variety of geologic data sets in order to solve problems about how the Earth works • …interpret why some areas of the world have the landscapes they do • …predict which regions of the world would be susceptible to certain natural hazards • …synthesize human perspective of time with rates of geologic processes and events, and predict ways in which these conflict with one another

  4. Step 2: you’ve developed goals, now what? (new material in old format?!) What are the unique challenges to improving student learning in your large intro class? Logistical? Technology? Content? Evaluate what you are already doing and what is already working ex, labs for large intro geology class: small groups, problem-based, quantitative, variable learning styles, portfolio writing How can you make better use of the things that ARE working (improve linkage or carry-over) What are one or two things that are not working and how to improve these?

  5. An example from UVM’s “Introduction to Earth System Science” (200 students; 6 GTAs) • What wasn’t working: “talking head” lecture • What was: our labs: Fall semester field trips: -A modern beach -Lower Cambrian shallow marine sandstones -Middle Ordovician fossiliferous limestones, folded and faulted - Champlain Thrust - Geomorphology and hydrology of the Winooski River All involve students making observations, measurements, sketches, interpretations, calculations = active learning

  6. The problem: • Lack of synchronicity with lecture content; how could the lecture improve from carry-over from the labs? • Strategies: • Development of videos of field trips to watch as pre-lab assignment • Post-lab videos to watch in class and discuss • Devote time in lecture to discuss what we are going to do in lab, and why, and how it relates to class topics (sometimes a stretch!) • Include lab material in exams

  7. Other changes • Pyramid quizzes. The Friday quiz is done in 2 halves. Students get practice on the types of questions that they will see on the exam. • Synchronous informal assessment techniques that allows me to adapt pace of lecture “on the fly.” (“CPS, e-Instruction”) • Some activity: T-P-S, concept map, or even just CPS in every lecture. Students can practice what I want them to do; they learn to “play with data” Examples: T-P-S= think-pair-share

  8. Other changes, cont. • Activities: (1) demonstrations (silly putty, slinky). Ask students to make predictions about outcomes. Do demo, discuss results (2) photo interpretations. What do students see? What is the significance/interpretation of the observation? (3) graph interpretations and calculations (geothermal gradient). For all of these I collect student responses and project them on docu-cam for discussion and critique. By using “active learning” activities at least once in every class you make it worth a student’s time to come (particularly if you practice in class what you will be asking them to do on exams).

  9. Still more changes… • Lab: Adding rubrics to labs; summative portfolio of lab work that ask students to consider how the labs have impacted their perception of the landscape (contexturalize) • Free lectures from “the tyranny of the textbook”…don’t feel you have to follow chapters sequentially; use lectures to solve problems, lecture as background (context) and summary. • Tape off a row in the middle of the large lecture hall, so I can move around/through seats • Develop clear grading rubrics for all assignments

  10. Issues to contend with: a sampling! • Taking on too many changes all at once and getting overwhelmed • Developing assessment to go with all of the changes, i.e., figuring out what was working (= worth the time commitment & also improved student learning) • Student attitudes (don’t underestimate the power of the student grapevine!)

  11. More issues: • GTF inertia (in some depts this may be colleague expectations) • YOUR attitude - don’t think it’s a “one fix” problem but more like a long term, ongoing project • Since time and energy are limited, take time to identify THE key issues that keep your classroom from being a dynamic learning environment. Then triage…work at one or two strategies to address each of them

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