Creating active learning activities

1. Creating active learning activities Course Design Workshop Series Mark Potter Director, Center for Faculty Development mpotte10@mscd.edu

2. Workshop Objectives • Following this workshop, participants will • Be able to assess and identify their individual comfort level with active learning; • Establish for themselves specific steps to make learning more active in their classes.

3. Activity: Exploratory Writing • Take about 2-3 minutes and write your response to the following question: “What do you see as your primary role in your position as instructor?”

4. Activity: Think/Pair/Share • Turn to the person next to you and discuss the thoughts you each wrote down in response to the previous question.

5. Activity: Brainstorm with Pro/Con Grid • Read Teaching Professor handout. • Brainstorm as a group to this question: “What are the pros/cons of lecturing during class?”

6. Defining Active Learning • Learning by doing. • General characteristics of an active learning approach include: • Students are involved in more than listening. • Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more on developing students’ skills. • Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation). • Students are engaged in activities (e.g. reading, discussing, writing). • Greater emphasis is placed on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values.

7. Discussion • Research shows that “give a faculty almost any kind of class in any subject, large or small, upper or lower division, and they will lecture” (Blackburn et al., 1980) • What do you think are the barriers preventing faculty from adopting active learning approaches in their classes?

8. Advantages of Active Learning • Students retain what they have learned better than they do in classes with only lecture (The Teaching Professor). • Active learning, more than lecture alone, contributes to significant learning experiences (L. Dee Fink, 2003). • Active learning helps students achieve outcomes in line with demands for lifelong learning. (AAC&U).

9. Advantages of Active Learning • “Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers… They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves”—Chickering and Gamson (1987).

10. Change • Incremental: Adopt one or two techniques in one class and assess effectiveness. • Requirements: identify current approaches , comfort level, and the specific techniques suitable for adoption • Consider situational factors and risk • Integrated: Build active learning into a course design

11. Integrated Course Design From L. Dee Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences (2003)

12. Alignment with Learning Objectives • Alignment of learning activities with objectives is important, whether you are taking an integrated or incremental approach to designing active learning. • Examples • Pro/Con grid: Analysis, evaluation • Think/Pair/Share: Comprehension, analysis • Minute paper: Knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, learn how to learn.

13. Activity • Discuss specific learning activity: • Have you used this learning activity in the past? What was your experience? • Would you be comfortable using this learning activity in the future? Why, or why not? • What learning objectives might this activity support?

14. Choosing Learning Activities: Situational Factors • Specific context of the teaching/learning situation • Size of class • Lower- or upper-division • Length and frequency of class meetings • Delivery method of course (online, face to face, hybrid) • Expectations of external groups • Accreditation expectations for particular active learning experiences • Alignment of course learning goals and curricular learning goals • Nature of subject

15. Choosing Learning Activities: Situational Factors, cont. • Characteristics of learners • Life or professional goals • Prior experiences, knowledge, skills, and attitudes • Students’ learning styles • Characteristics of the teacher • Comfort level with material • Comfort with shifting control to students • Comfort with risk level of active learning strategy

16. Choosing Learning Activities: A comparison of low- and high-risk strategies

17. Choosing Learning Activities: Sorting activities by risk and involvement

18. Final Activity: Establishing personal goals • On your 4x6 card mark your name and department. • Write yourself a brief note indicating what active learning strategies you intend to adopt, for what class, and in what time frame. • I will send you that note at the appropriate time to remind you of your goals.

19. Resources • Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass • Bean, J.C. (2001). Engaging Ideas. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Bonwell, C.C. and Eison, J.A. (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. Washington, DC: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development.

20. Resources, cont. • Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). “Seven Principles for Good Practice.” AAHE Bulletin 39: 3-7. • Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating Significant Learning Experiences. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Find “Web Resources” at the CFD Web site: www.mscd.edu/cfd/resources.