Lecture III – Theories and Strategies for Active Learning

Eastern Mediterranean University ITEC106 Lecture III – Theories and Strategies for Active Learning

Learning Theories • Several learning theories and teaching strategies can create the conditions for active learning in the classroom. • These include; • Anchored instruction, • Case-based learning, • Cooperative learning, • Inquiry learning, • Problem-based learning, and • Project-based learning.

Information Processing Theory • Information processing theory is based on a set of hypothesized structures in the brain that work much like a computer. • For learning to occur, a series of transformations of information takes place in or through these structures. • According to information processing theory, the human brain receives information (input), performs operations on it to change its form and content (processing), stores and locates it and generates responses to it (output).

Information Processing Theory… • Processing involves gathering and representing information, or encoding; storing information, or retention; and getting at the information when needed, or retrieval.

Information Processing Theory… • Active learning can be viewed as a process of building mental models that represent the key parts of the presented material and their relations. • Although improvements in retention enable learners to remember information better, learners whose understanding is improved are able to use the information to solve new problems, called transfer.

Information Processing Theory… • Web-enhanced learning, is based on several learning models and teaching strategies that facilitate encoding and retrieval of information to improve retention and increase understanding. • The use of Internet technologies can also increase the effectiveness of inputs into working memory by providing interesting and relevant resources that engage students and motivate them to learn.

Constructivism • A contemporary view of learning is that students come to school with a range of prior knowledge, skills, beliefs, and experiences and that they construct new knowledge and understandings based on what they already know and believe. • This view of learning is called constructivism. • A constructivist philosophy of learning assumes that all knowledge is constructed from previous knowledge.

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGIES • Several learning models or methods facilitate student’s construction of knowledge, including anchored instruction, case-based learning, cooperative learning, inquiry learning, problem-based learning, and project-based learning. • These approaches all revolve around a central question or theme, which creates the need for acquiring and processing information that can be used to construct useful knowledge. • The question can take the form of a problem, case, issue, situation, or project.

Anchored Instruction • Anchored instruction refers to instructional strategies that create authentic learning experiences. • Anchored instruction places students in the context of a problem based story. • They take on authentic roleswhile investigating the problem—identifying gaps in their knowledge, researching the information needed to solve the problem, and developing solutions. • Learning activities are designed around the “anchor” of the contextualized case study or problem situation.

Anchored Instruction… • With anchored instruction the task must be realistic. • Students take ownership based on the relevancy of the story or scenario and its relatedness to everyday problems and experiences. • Web-enhanced learning can use the principles of anchored instruction, taking advantage of the multimedia features of the Web—audio, video, and graphics—to promote realism.

Anchored Instruction… • Because all or most of the required data or information should be embedded within the story line, the hypertext linking capabilities of Web pages can support the chunking of information and the branching to related resources. • For example, a collection of websites could be organized to provide virtual field trips.

Case-Based Learning • Case-based learninguses cases or complex problems that are typically based in fact and are designed to stimulate classroom discussion and collaborative analysis. • In case-based learning students receive a realistic case that supports curriculum goals and then formulate strategies to analyze the data and generate possible solutions. • Students imagine themselves in the situation described by the case, make decisions, and explain their rationale for their choices.

Case-Based Learning… • Cases allow students to acquire substantive knowledge and develop analytic, collaborative, and communication skills. • Because case-based learning is a flexible methodology, it can easily be incorporated into Web-enhanced learning. • Cases can provide a structured presentation with a common ending or an open-ended presentation with students exploring the different outcomes resulting from their choices. • Although cases can be as simple as printed stories, the multimedia features of the Web can add graphics, audio, and video as well as links to additional resources. • Internet communication tools can be used to allow teachers and students to discuss, debate, and debrief cases with one another and with experts online.

Collaborative Learning • Collaborative learning, or cooperative learning, involves two or more peers engaged in an activity that requires them to maintain some agreement and reach a shared solution. • Collaborative learning assumes that a shared goal, mutual respect, tolerance, trust, and clear lines of responsibility are established and that the team works on common materials that can take many forms.

Collaborative Learning… • The teacher facilitates decisions, but students are actively involved in constructing a solution; communication occurs in both formal and informal environments. • Collaborative or cooperative learning extends learning beyond the immediate collaboration by adding to the collective knowledge of the classroom.

Collaborative Learning… • Web-enhanced learning often uses collaborative / cooperative learning methodologies. • For example, Web pages can be used to present a scenario to an entire class with each student on a cooperative team then assigned a role to research a smaller portion of a larger issue. • Team members share and compile their data, developing a solution to the situation and constructing a resource to teach others about their topic and add to the collective knowledge of the class. • Internet communication tools can facilitate collaboration among students, allowing them to communicate asynchronously with e-mail and discussion boards or synchronously with chat rooms.

Inquiry Learning • Inquiry, or discovery, learning uses questioning strategies to engage students in discovering rules and relationships and generating new knowledge and understandings. • With this approach students are required to discover the rules behind concepts. • The role of the teacher is shifted from presenting subject matter to activating conversation to encourage students to discover answers or solutions.

Inquiry Learning… • The teacher coaches students by questioning, provides context to the topic, draws upon students’ prior and prerequisite knowledge, givesfeedback, and provides help. • Although inquiry learning is often associated with a science curriculum, it is one of the best ways to implement Web-enhanced learning in almost any subject area.

Inquiry Learning… • With inquiry-based learning students formulate investigative questions, obtain factual information, and then build knowledge that reflects their answer to the original question; with Web-enhanced learning the factual information is obtained from Web resources. • Using Web-enhanced learning with an inquiry approach works something like this: • Students are presented with an essential question that they research to develop a list of related questions, choices, or strategies in response to the main question.

Inquiry Learning… • The student exhibit can have many forms; • for example, Web essays, which are documents published on the Web that contain information in multiple formats, including text, sounds, pictures, graphics, and movies. • Or students can use Web page editing software orproductivity tools to create exhibits such as printed reports or multimedia presentations.

Problem-Based Learning • Problem-based learning begins with the introduction of a real-world problem. • Students are encouraged to confront the problem, construct their individual understanding of it, andfinally find an answer for it while teachers provide guidance and resource material. • Problem-based learning is similar to anchored instruction and case-based learning but may be more open-ended and less structured.

Problem-Based Learning… • The problems are not meant to result in a single, static solution; instead, solutions evolve as new information is gathered in an iterative process. • As in anchored instruction, students solve the problems, while teachers function as coaches and facilitators who give guidance only on how to approach problems. • Web-enhanced learning is highly compatible with a problem-based learning approach.

Problem-Based Learning… • Students can conduct research using the search tools and resources of the Web. • The teacher would not typically develop materials to teach specific content but would require studentsto access databases, slides, documents, or other relevant information resources. • These reference materials would be shared in the form of recommended hypertext links to Web-based resources.

Project-Based Learning • Project-based learning organizes learning around projects, which are complex tasks based on authentic, challenging problems or questions that involve students in critical thinking and culminate in realistic products. • Project-based learning resembles problem-based learning in the use of authentic content, authentic assessment, teacher facilitation, cooperative learning, and reflection.

Project-Based Learning… • Project-based learning is distinctive, however, in using problems that are better structured or better defined. • All the methods described here are some form of project-based learning, but project-based learning itself is more concerned with the products of learning and emphasizes the mastery of learning, whereas several of the other methods, such as problem-based learning, focus on learning process as much as product.

TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES • Web enhanced learning assumes that learner is not passive receiver of information and uses inquiry or exploration methodologies to allow the student to generate knowledge. • Therefore, teachers should employ instructional strategies that help students construct meaningful understandings of the information they find.

Generative Learning • Generative learning is a process of generating ideas by reorganizing facts and information into more flexible knowledge structures that reveal relationships among ideas or by identifying gaps in knowledge or conflicts between ideas. • Generative learning requires the student – • To actively participate with the content; • It encourages deep thinking and development of new knowledge through recall, reflection, inquiry, and elaboration of previous knowledge.

Generative Learning… • With Web-enhanced learning generative learning strategies should be used to encourage learners to encounter content in such a way that they can construct their own meaning. • Such strategies allow students to experiment with information to create a personal understanding of the subject to be learned; students generate knowledge by forming mental connections among concepts.

Authentic Assessment • Learning tasks that use powerful methodologies such as cases, projects, and problems require a different approach to assessment. • In student-centered classrooms open-ended assessment techniques that involve students in examining their own learning and understanding are more useful than objective tests. • Authentic assessment allows evaluation of student exhibits or work products that represent the culmination of a set of learning tasks.

Authentic Assessment… • Traditional assessment involves paper-and-pencil testing, but Web-enhanced learning should employ other techniques, such as rating items on scales, observing student performances, critiquing student work products, or conducting student interviews. • Assessment can also include student portfolios consisting of exhibits or artifacts that demonstrate mastery of skills. • With authentic assessment credit is given on the basis of process—for example, how well a student works on a team—as well as product.

Coaching and Mentoring • Coaching and mentoring are training and development strategies used by professionals to help colleagues improve their professional practice; both are based on a collegial relationship. • Coaching is a partnership in which colleagues observe one another in the practice of their profession and hold focused discussions prior to and following observations.

Coaching and Mentoring… • Mentoring uses the same techniques but involves an expert professional who is assigned to help a novice professional learn new knowledge and skills to improve professionally. • Coaching and mentoring are powerful teaching strategies that are especially appropriate for student-centered classrooms in which students are generating knowledge. • Coaching and mentoring help students become more conscious learners through self-assessment and reflection and encourage them to examine their own internal processing mechanisms.

Scaffolding • Scaffolding provides learners with direction and motivation for solving problems or completing learning activities. • Scaffolding generally refers to interactions between teachers and students to support learning. • For example, teachers may provide feedback, explanations, directions, examples or nonexamples, or demonstrations that help learners access relevant information for solving problems and reduce the number of steps necessary to solve those problems.

Scaffolding… • Scaffolding provides sufficient structure to keep students productive and motivated. • Jamie McKenzie (2000) identifies several characteristics of scaffolding strategies: • They should provide clear directions, • clarify purpose, • keep students on task, • offer assessment to clarify expectations, • point students to worthy sources, • deliver efficiency, • create momentum, and • reduce uncertainty, • surprise, and disappointment.

A Project-Based Approach to Web-Enhanced Learning • A project-based learning approach is characterized by long-term investigation, a solution to a main question or problem, and the development of project artifacts that demonstrate an understanding of the question or problem. • Thus, project-based learning is resource intensive and requires adequate tools in the classroom. • The Web provides virtually unlimited resources and numerous tools.

A Project-Based Approach to Web-Enhanced Learning… • Web-enhanced learning using a project-based approach can be deployed in a classroom with one or more computers that have access to the Internet. • With project-based learning students analyze, interpret, and synthesize information resources and then use development tools to construct or represent information in a new format, such as a word processing document, spreadsheet, database, Web page, or multimedia program.

A Project-Based Approach to Web-Enhanced Learning… • Project-based learning allows teachers to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. The use of projects in classrooms was first advanced by Kilpatrick (1918) and has since been defined in a variety of ways. • A project is an in-depth investigation of a real-world topic conducted by a class, small groups, or individual students of any age.

THE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING • Project-based learning focuses more on the learning product than the learning process (Howard, 2002); it emphasizes mastery of lesson content. • Projects can motivate students to learn by allowing them to be actively involved in their own learning,which can result in high-quality work (Berliner, 1992). • Although projects are structured, they still provide a flexible framework for teaching and learning.

THE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGESOF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING… • Positive outcomes of project-based learning in the classroom: • Developing expertise. • Improving research skills. • Improving higher order thinking skills. • Participating in a project. • Learning to use information technology. • Conducting self-assessment and peer assessment. • Developing a portfolio. • Engaging in a project. • Being a part of a community of scholars. • Working on important ideas.

THE ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING…

Lecture III – Theories and Strategies for Active Learning