R546 Instructional Stategies for Thinking, Collaboration, and Motivation

1. R546 Instructional Stategies for Thinking, Collaboration, and Motivation Curtis J. Bonk, Professor, Indiana University President, SurveyShare cjbonk@indiana.edu http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk

2. Expectations List

3. Why is Class Important? • For Students: • Variety, variety, variety • Address preferences • Provide challenges and supports • Allows some autonomy • Better prepared for changing times

4. Why is Class Important? For Instructors: • Get to know students better • More reflection on teaching • More confidence

5. My Intentions: Who Targeted? • Update teaching methods and philosophies • Build collaborative teams • Provide labels for what already do • Create long-range goals • Design usable curricula • Foster interaction and collaboration • Stop being giant yellow highlighters

6. Preliminary Action Plan…

7. Test Question #1 • When will active learning meet active teaching?

8. Charles I. Gragg (1940: Because Wisdom Can’t be Told) “A student of business with tact Absorbed many answers he lacked. But acquiring a job, He said with a sob, How does one fit answer to fact?”

9. Traditional Teachers • Supposed sage, manager, conveyer • Sets the agenda • Learner is a sponge • Passive learning & discrete knowledge • Objectively assess, competitive • Text- or teacher-centered • Transmission model • Lack interconnections & inert • Squash student ideas

10. Anyone? Anyone?

11. Must Statistics and Math teachers be boring?

12. Andie MacDowell, Bill Murray, 1993

13. Changes in College Campuses Today???

14. The NSSE (nessie)

15. “It's an embarrassment that we can tell people almost anything about education except how well students are learning.” Patrick M. Callan, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education

16. What Really Matters in College: Student Engagement “The research is unequivocal: students who are actively involved in both academic and out-of-class activities gain more from the college experience than those who are not so involved.” Ernest T. Pascarella & Patrick T. Terenzini, How College Affects Students

17. Evidence of Student Engagement • To what extent are students engaged in effective educational practices? • How can we obtain and best use such information?

18. National Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “nessie”)Community College Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “sessie”) College student surveys that assess the extent to which students engage in educational practices associated with high levels of learning and development

19. National Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “nessie”)Community College Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “sessie”)

20. Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice (Kuh, in press)

21. Level of Academic Challenge Challenging intellectual and creative work is central to student learning and collegiate quality. Colleges and universities promote high levels of student achievement by emphasizing the importance of academic effort and setting high expectations for student performance.

22. Level of Academic Challenge • Sample of 10 questions: • Number of assigned textbooks, books, or book-length packs of course readings • Number of written papers or reports of 20 pages or more • Coursework emphasizes: Analyzing the basic elements of an idea, experience or theory • Coursework emphasizes: Synthesizing and organizing ideas, information, or experiences • Coursework emphasizes: Making judgments about the value of information, arguments, or methods

23. Active and Collaborative Learning Students learn more when they are intensely involved in their education and are asked to think about and apply what they are learning in different settings. Collaborating with others in solving problems or mastering difficult material prepares students to deal with the messy, unscripted problems they will encounter daily during and after college.

24. Active and Collaborative Learning • 7 questions: • Asked questions in class or contributed to class discussions • Made a class presentation • Worked with other students on projects during class • Worked with classmates outside of class to prepare class assignments

25. Active and Collaborative Learning • 7 questions: • Tutored or taught other students • Participated in a community-based project as part of a regular course • Discussed ideas from your reading or classes with others outside of class (students, family members, co-workers, etc.)

26. What We’re Learning About Student Engagement From NSSE George Kuh (in press). Change, Indiana University Bloomington

27. Active & Collaborative Learning • Samford University makes extensive use of problem-based learning (PBL) strategies to induce students to work together to examine complex problems.

28. Active & Collaborative Learning • Eckerd College developed Autumn Term, a month during which classes meet from 9 AM to noon, five days a week. Group projects and discussion-oriented pedagogies are coupled with a community service project.

29. Student-Faculty Interaction • Elon University added an extra hour of class meeting time for experiential learning. This allows students and faculty to dig deeper and promotes more frequent student-faculty contact.

30. See National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE): The College Student Report(November 2003 Annual Report)

31. NSSE: The College Student Report(November 2003 Annual Report)

32. A Paradigm Shift Happening?

33. Students are too often… • Not very interested in ideas • Not respectful of others ideas • Wanting learning to seem easy • Not well organized

34. Students are too often… • Emotionally moody and sleepy • Preoccupied with previous class or hour • Expecting entertainment • Unable to concentrate for too long • Isolated or alienated

35. Learning Metaphors • Teacher or text-centered to Student or thinking skill-centered to Student generated or problem-centered • Transmission to Construction or Design to Discovery or Transformation • Boring to Active to Love of Learning • Sponge to Growing Tree to Pilgrim on a Journey

36. Smart Schools(Perkins, 1992) • Causes of educational shortfall • Trivial pursuit model • Ability counts most theory • Missing, inert, naïve, ritual knowledge • Poor thinking, rely on knowledge telling, cannot make inferences and solve problems • Educational Goals • Retention, understanding, and active use of knowledge

37. Consultative Teachers • Co-learner, mentor, tour guide, facilitator • Student and problem-centered • Learner is a growing tree and on a journey • Knowledge is constructed and intertwined • Many resources (including texts & teachers) • Authentic, collaborative, real-world tasks • Subjective, continual, less formal assess • Display student ideas--proud and motivated • Build CT, CR, CL skills

38. Active Learning Principles 1. Authentic/Raw Data 2. Student Autonomy/Inquiry 3. Relevant/Meaningful/Interests 4. Link to Prior Knowledge 5. Choice and Challenge 6. Teacher as Facilitator and Co-Learner 7. Social Interaction and Dialogue 8. Problem-Based & Student Gen Learning 9. Multiple Viewpoints/Perspectives 10. Collab, Negotiation, & Reflection

39. 7 Fundamental Principles of Learning (Kahn, 1993) • Learning is social • Knowledge is integrated into life of community • Learning is an act of membership • Knowing in engagement in practice • Engagement & empowerment are linked • Failure to learn results from exclusion from practice • We have a society of lifelong learners

40. Resources in a Learning Environment: • Teachers • Peers • Curriculum/Textbooks • Technology/Tools • Experts/Community • Assessment/Testing • Self Reflection • Parents

42. Sociocultural Ideas • Shared Space and Intersubjectivity • Social Dialogue on Authentic Problems • Mentoring and Teleapprenticeships • Scaffolding and Electronic Assistance • Group Processing and Reflection • Collaboration and Negotiation in ZPD • Choice and Challenge • Community of Learning with Experts and Peers • Portfolio Assessment and Feedback • Assisted Learning (e.g., task structuring)

43. Connections New Theories • Situated Learning--asserts that learning is most effective in authentic, or real world, contexts with problems that allow students to generate their own solution paths (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989).

44. Connections New Theories • Constructivism--concerned with learner's actual act of creating meaning (Brooks, 1990). The constructivist argues that the child's mind actively constructs relationships and ideas; hence, meaning is derived from negotiating, generating, and linking concepts within a community of peers (Harel & Papert, 1991).

45. The Tao of Teaching • A wise teacher lets other have the floor. • Trying to appear brilliant does not work. • The gift of a great teacher is creating an awareness of greatness in others. • Facilitate what is happening, rather than what you think ought to be happening. Silence says more than words, pay attention to it.

46. The Tao of Teaching • Allow time for genuine insight. • Instead of trying hard, be easy; teach by example, and more will happen. • If you measure success in terms of praise and criticism, your anxiety will be endless. • Any over-determined behavior produces its opposite.

48. Teacher Self-Assessment for active learning. (Bonk, 1995) In my classes... ___ 1. students have a say in class activities and tests. ___ 2. I help students to explore, build, and connect their ideas. ___ 3. students share their ideas and views with each other and me.

49. Teacher Self-Assessment for active learning. (Bonk, 1995) ___ 4. students can relate new terms and concepts to events in their lives ___ 5. students work in small groups or teams when solving problems. ___ 6. students use computers to help them organize and try out their ideas. ___ 7. I give hints and clues for solving problems but do not give away the answers.

50. Teacher Self-Assessment for active learning. (Bonk, 1995) In my classes... ___ 8. I relate new information or problems to what students have already learned. ___ 9. students prepare answers with a partner or team b/4 sharing ideas with the class. ___ 10. I ask questions that have more than one answer. ___ 11. students take sides and debate issues and viewpoints.