Design and Implementation of Cooperative Learning and Problem-Based Learning in Engineering

1. Design and Implementation of Cooperative Learning and Problem-Based Learning in Engineering Karl A. Smith Engineering Education – Purdue University Civil Engineering - University of Minnesota ksmith@umn.edu http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith University of Notre Dame Engineering Seminar March 31, 2010

2. Session Objectives • Participants will be able to : • Describe Key Features of Cooperative learning • Explain rationale for Cooperative Learning • Summarize research on How People Learn • Describe key features of the Backward Design process – Content (outcomes) – Assessment - Pedagogy • Identify connections between cooperative learning and desired outcomes of courses and programs • Participants will begin applying key elements to the design on a course, class session or learning module 2

3. Background Knowledge Survey • Familiarity with • Cooperative Learning Strategies • Informal – turn-to-your-neighbor • Formal – cooperative problem-based learning • Approaches to Course Design • Wiggins & McTighe – Understanding by Design (Backward Design) • Fink – Creating Significant Learning Experiences • Felder & Brent – Effective Course Design • Research • Student engagement – NSSE • Cooperative learning • How People Learn • Responsibility • Individual course • Program • Accreditation • Other

4. “Throughout the whole enterprise, the core issue, in my view, is the mode of teaching and learning that is practiced. Learning ‘about’ things does not enable students to acquire the abilities and understanding they will need for the twenty-first century. We need new pedagogies of engagement that will turn out the kinds of resourceful, engaged workers and citizens that America now requires.” Russ Edgerton (reflecting on higher education projects funded by the Pew Memorial Trust) 4

5. Student Engagement Research Evidence • Perhaps the strongest conclusion that can be made is the least surprising. Simply put, the greater the student’s involvement or engagement in academic work or in the academic experience of college, the greater his or her level of knowledge acquisition and general cognitive development …(Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005). • Active and collaborative instruction coupled with various means to encourage student engagement invariably lead to better student learning outcomes irrespective of academic discipline (Kuh et al., 2005, 2007). See Smith, et.al, 2005 and Fairweather, 2008, Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Undergraduate Education - http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Fairweather_CommissionedPaper.pdf 5

6. MIT & Harvard – Engaged Pedagogy January 13, 2009—New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/us/13physics.html?em January 2, 2009—Science, Vol. 323 www.sciencemag.org Calls for evidence-based teaching practices

7. http://web.mit.edu/edtech/casestudies/teal.html#video

8. http://www.ncsu.edu/PER/scaleup.html

9. Lila M. Smith

10. Pedago-pathologies Amnesia Fantasia Inertia Lee Shulman – MSU Med School – PBL Approach (late 60s – early 70s), President Emeritus of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of College Teaching Shulman, Lee S. 1999. Taking learning seriously. Change, 31 (4), 11-17.

11. What do we do about these pathologies? • Activity – Engage learners in meaningful and purposeful activities • Reflection – Provide opportunities • Collaboration – Design interaction • Passion – Connect with things learners care about Shulman, Lee S. 1999. Taking learning seriously. Change, 31 (4), 11-17. 11

12. Lila M. Smith

13. Pedagogies of Engagement 13

14. The American College Teacher: National Norms for 2007-2008 http://www.heri.ucla.edu/index.php 14

15. Reflection and Dialogue • Individually reflect on Active and Cooperative Learning Successes. Write for about 1 minute • Context? Subject, Year, School • Structure/Procedure? What did you do/experience? • Outcome? Evidence of Success • Discuss with your neighbor for about 2 minutes • Select Success Story, Comment, Question, etc. that you would like to present to the whole group if you are randomly selected

16. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom • Informal Cooperative Learning Groups • Formal Cooperative Learning Groups • Cooperative Base Groups See Cooperative Learning Handout (CL College-804.doc) 16

17. Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology – National Science Foundation, 1996 Goal – All students have access to supportive, excellent undergraduate education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology, and all students learn these subjects by direct experience with the methods and processes of inquiry. Recommend that SME&T faculty: Believe and affirm that every student can learn, and model good practices that increase learning; starting with the student’s experience, but have high expectations within a supportive climate; and build inquiry, a sense of wonder and the excitement of discovery, plus communication and teamwork, critical thinking, and life-long learning skills into learning experiences. 17

18. Here are the Grand Challenges for engineering as determined by a committee of the National Academy of Engineering: • Make solar energy economical • Provide energy from fusion • Develop carbon sequestration methods • Manage the nitrogen cycle • Provide access to clean water • Restore and improve urban infrastructure • Advance health informatics • Engineer better medicines • Reverse-engineer the brain • Prevent nuclear terror • Secure cyberspace • Enhance virtual reality • Advance personalized learning • Engineer the tools of scientific discovery 18

19. National Research Council Reports: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (1999). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (2000). Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment (2001). The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education (2002). Chapter 6 – Creating High-Quality Learning Environments: Guidelines from Research on How People Learn 19

20. 20

21. 21

22. Designing Learning Environments Based on HPL (How People Learn) 22

23. Resources • Smith, K. A., Douglas, T. C., & Cox, M. 2009. Supportive teaching and learning strategies in STEM education. In R. Baldwin, (Ed.). Improving the climate for undergraduate teaching in STEM fields. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 117, 19-32. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Pellegrino – Rethinking and Redesigning Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment • Bransford, Vye and Bateman – Creating High Quality Learning Environments

24. Backward DesignWiggins & McTighe Stage 1. Identify Desired Results Stage 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence Stage 3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. 1998. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD 24

25. It could well be that faculty members of the twenty-first century college or university will find it necessary to set aside their roles as teachers and instead become designers of learning experiences, processes, and environments. James Duderstadt, 1999 [Nuclear Engineering Professor; Dean, Provost and President of the University of Michigan] 25

26. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom • Informal Cooperative Learning Groups • Formal Cooperative Learning Groups • Cooperative Base Groups See Cooperative Learning Handout (CL College-804.doc) 26

27. Cooperative Learning is instruction that involves people working in teams to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that involve both positive interdependence (all members must cooperate to complete the task) and individual and group accountability (each member is accountable for the complete final outcome). Key Concepts •Positive Interdependence •Individual and Group Accountability •Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction •Teamwork Skills •Group Processing

28. 28 http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith/docs/Smith-CL%20Handout%2008.pdf

29. Book Ends on a Class Session 29

30. Book Ends on a Class Session • Advance Organizer • Formulate-Share-Listen-Create (Turn-to-your-neighbor) -- repeated every 10-12 minutes • Session Summary (Minute Paper) • What was the most useful or meaningful thing you learned during this session? • What question(s) remain uppermost in your mind as we end this session? • What was the “muddiest” point in this session?

31. Advance Organizer “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.” David Ausubel - Educational psychology: A cognitive approach, 1968. 31

32. Quick Thinks • Reorder the steps • Paraphrase the idea • Correct the error • Support a statement • Select the response • Johnston, S. & Cooper,J. 1997. Quick thinks: Active- thinking in lecture classes and televised instruction. Cooperative learning and college teaching, 8(1), 2-7. 32

33. Formulate-Share-Listen-Create • Informal Cooperative Learning Group • Introductory Pair Discussion of a • FOCUS QUESTION • Formulate your response to the question individually • Share your answer with a partner • Listen carefully to your partner's answer • Work together to Create a new answer through discussion 33

34. Minute Paper • What was the most useful or meaningful thing you learned during this session? • What question(s) remain uppermost in your mind as we end this session? • What was the “muddiest” point in this session? • Give an example or application • Explain in your own words . . . Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. 1993. Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. 34

35. Session Summary • (Minute Paper) • Reflect on the session: • 1. Most interesting, valuable, useful thing you learned. • 2. Things that helped you learn. • 3. Question, comments, suggestions. • Pace: Too slow 1 . . . . 5 Too fast • Relevance: Little 1 . . . 5 Lots • Instructional Format: Ugh 1 . . . 5 Ah 35

36. MOT 8221 – Spring 2010 – Session 1 (1/29/10) Q4 – Pace: Too slow 1 . . . . 5 Too fast (3.0) Q5 – Relevance: Little 1 . . . 5 Lots (3.9) Q6 – Format: Ugh 1 . . . 5 Ah (4.1)

37. MOT 8221 – Spring 2009 – Session 1 Q4 – Pace: Too slow 1 . . . . 5 Too fast (3.3) Q5 – Relevance: Little 1 . . . 5 Lots (4.2) Q6 – Format: Ugh 1 . . . 5 Ah (4.4) 37

38. Informal CL (Book Ends on a Class Session) with Concept Tests Physics Peer Instruction Eric Mazur - Harvard – http://galileo.harvard.edu Peer Instruction – www.prenhall.com Richard Hake – http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ Chemistry Chemistry ConcepTests - UW Madison www.chem.wisc.edu/~concept Video: Making Lectures Interactive with ConcepTests ModularChem Consortium – http://mc2.cchem.berkeley.edu/ STEMTEC Video: How Change Happens: Breaking the “Teach as You Were Taught” Cycle – Films for the Humanities & Sciences – www.films.com Harvard Thinking Together & From Questions to Concepts Interactive Teaching in Physics: Derek Bok Center – www.fas.harvard.edu/~bok_cen/ 38

39. UMn-CL+PS X X UMn Cooperative Groups UMn Traditional The “Hake” Plot of FCI 35.00 SDI 30.00 ALS WP 25.00 20.00 PI(HU) 15.00 ASU(nc) WP* 10.00 ASU(c) HU 5.00 0.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 39 Pretest (Percent)

40. Richard Hake (Interactive engagement vs traditional methods) http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ Traditional (lecture) Interactive (active/cooperative) <g> = Concept Inventory Gain/Total

41. 41

42. Physics (Mechanics) Concepts:The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) • A 30 item multiple choice test to probe student's understanding of basic concepts in mechanics. • The choice of topics is based on careful thought about what the fundamental issues and concepts are in Newtonian dynamics. • Uses common speech rather than cueing specific physics principles. • The distractors (wrong answers) are based on students' common inferences. 42

43. Informal Cooperative Learning Groups Can be used at any time Can be short term and ad hoc May be used to break up a long lecture Provides an opportunity for students to process material they have been listening to (Cognitive Rehearsal) Are especially effective in large lectures Include "book ends" procedure Are not as effective as Formal Cooperative Learning or Cooperative Base Groups

44. Strategies for Energizing Large Classes: From Small Groups to Learning Communities: Jean MacGregor, James Cooper, Karl Smith, Pamela Robinson New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 81, 2000. Jossey- Bass

45. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom • Informal Cooperative Learning Groups • Formal Cooperative Learning Groups • Cooperative Base Groups See Cooperative Learning Handout (CL College-804.doc) 45

46. Formal Cooperative Learning

47. Cooperative Learning Research Support Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Smith, K.A. 1998. Cooperative learning returns to college: What evidence is there that it works? Change, 30 (4), 26-35. • Over 300 Experimental Studies • First study conducted in 1924 • High Generalizability • Multiple Outcomes Outcomes 1. Achievement and retention 2. Critical thinking and higher-level reasoning 3. Differentiated views of others 4. Accurate understanding of others' perspectives 5. Liking for classmates and teacher 6. Liking for subject areas 7. Teamwork skills January 2005 March 2007

48. Small-Group Learning: Meta-analysis Springer, L., Stanne, M. E., & Donovan, S. 1999. Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 69(1), 21-52. Small-group (predominantly cooperative) learning in postsecondary science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET). 383 reports from 1980 or later, 39 of which met the rigorous inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. The main effect of small-group learning on achievement, persistence, and attitudes among undergraduates in SMET was significant and positive. Mean effect sizes for achievement, persistence, and attitudes were 0.51, 0.46, and 0.55, respectively.

49. Formal Cooperative Learning • Jigsaw • 2. Peer Composition or Editing • 3. Reading Comprehension/Interpretation • 4. Problem Solving, Project, or Presentation • 5. Review/Correct Homework • 6. Constructive Academic Controversy • 7. Group Tests

50. http://www.aacu.org/advocacy/leap/documents/Re8097abcombined.pdfhttp://www.aacu.org/advocacy/leap/documents/Re8097abcombined.pdf 50