Maximizing Learning Spaces for STEM Undergraduates

1. PLANNING SPACES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STEM LEARNERS MnSCU/PKAL FEBRUARY 12 – 13, 2009

2. Learners, Pedagogies & Spaces— Built Pedagogies • Everyone is a learner • Everyone learns all the time • Every space is a learning space

3. 21ST Century Learners

4. Learning: Then & Now THEN Uni-disciplinary Single purpose spaces Teacher-directed Passive learning Independent learning Limited technologies Focus on STEM majors Unconnected NOW Multidisciplinary Multi-use / user spaces Learner-centered Engaged learning Collaborative learning Ubiquitous technologies Focus on all students Connected

5. Why This Matters • Retention as Related to • Learning Methods • Changing demographics • Multiple learning styles • Evolving pedagogy • Ubiquitous technology • Attract and retain the • best students & faculty

6. Why This Matters People are not born with inherent innovation skills, but they can learn them. They can acquire the social skills to work in diverse, multidisciplinary teams, learn adaptability and leadership. They can develop communication skills…learn to be comfortable with ambiguity…. Council on Competitiveness. 2005

7. Why This Matters

8. Pedagogies of Engagement “….Learning about things does not enable students to acquire the abilities and understandings they will need for the 21st century. We need new pedagogies of engagement that will turn out the kinds of resourceful, engaged workers and citizens that America now requires.” -- Russell Edgerton. 2001

9. Pedagogies of Engagement ACADEMIC COMPETENCIES • critical thinking • intellectual flexibility • reflective judgment • independent judgment • reasoning • comprehension • complex meaning- making • communication • collaboration • Problem-based learning (PBL) • Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) • Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) • SCALE-UP • Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL)

10. Engaged Learning: The Student’s Perspective(PEER-LED TEAM LEARNING) “Being a student in an introductory science course, especially in a large section, can be an impersonal, intimidating and frustrating experience. PLTL provides students with an efficient and supportive study group….”

11. Engaged Learning: The Student’s Perspective(PROBLEM ORIENTED GUIDED INQUIRY LEARNING) “Students who are given the opportunity (through POGIL) to gain the confidence and ability to learn on their own… ‘might just be able to build skyscrapers a mile high….’”

12. Engaged Learning: The Student’s Perspective(JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING) “It is easy to feel disconnected from a science course as a student….each day can seem as a new set of notes to take from the instructor’s monologue….JiTT provides the kind of day-to-day motivation that keeps me engaged….”

13. Engaged Learning: The Faculty’s Perspective “My goal is that students are eager to talk with each about what they are learning.”

14. Engaged Learning: The Faculty’s Perspective • “My goal is an environment in which students are learning rather than I am teaching….”

15. Learners, Pedagogies & Spaces— Built Pedagogies • Everyone is a learner • Everyone learns all the time • Every space is a learning space

16. Reflections on student learning: MIT • Direct experience decisively shapes individual understanding • Brain’s activity is in direct proportion to its engagement with stimulating environments • Concrete experiences solidify understanding of abstract concepts • Individuals learn by informally establishing and reworking patterns, relationships, and connections • Every student learns all the time • Learning occurring inside/outside of class: every setting a learning opportunity • Different learning styles must be supported • Change in environment is stimulating

17. Engaged Learners

18. Large Enrollment Lecture/ Collaborative Learning Spaces

19. SCALE-UP Classrooms(STUDENT CENTERED ACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS…)

21. Inverted Classroom

22. Interdisciplinary Spaces “From small experiences in learning about psychology and other sciences at this level of education, I developed an imaginary distaste for them...However, by combining neuroscience with art, which always holds my interest, I thought I had finally found a comfortable way to get a foothold in that field after avoiding it for so long” -David Gal, Allegheny College

23. An Investigative Interdisciplinary Laboratory • Introduce skills common to all laboratory practices • Promote higher order thinking through hypothesis formation and investigations • Break-down disciplinistic barriers • Encourage team work [partners] • Introduce mega-disciplinary themes • Show that experiments derived from faculty expertise can couple research and teaching

24. Every Setting a Learning Opportunity