Active Learning Strategies for Effective Teaching

1. Teaching for Learning: Using Active Learning Strategies & Cooperative Student Groups to Promote Learning in Lecture Classes – Session 4 Kathleen O’Donovan Connie Tzenis Center for Teaching and Learning University of Minnesota Karl Smith Civil Engineering University of Minnesota Agricultural Exports and Rural Income (AERI) Midwest University Consortium for International Activities Faculty Workshop – July 2004 1

2. Backward Design Stage 1. Identify Desired Results/Goals Stage 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence/ Assessment Stage 3. Plan Learning Activities and Instruction 2

3. Backward Design Stage 3.Plan Learning Activities & Instruction • What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, and principles) and skills (procedures) will students need to perform effectively and achieve desired results? • What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills? • What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it be taught, in light of performance goals? • What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals? • Is the overall design coherent and effective? 3

4. Session Design - Cooperative Learning Format TASK: Complete the session design project. INDIVIDUAL: Everyone contributes. COOPERATIVE: One plan from the group, strive for agreement, make sure everyone is able to explain or demonstrate the learning activity. EXPECTED CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS: Everyone must be able to explain. EVALUATION: Does the learning strategy fit the selected goal? INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: One member from your group may be randomly chosen to explain or demonstrate the activity. EXPECTED BEHAVIORS: Active participating, checking, encouraging, and elaborating by all members. INTERGROUP COOPERATION: Each group will describe or demonstrate their activity to one other group. 4

5. Team Member Roles • Task Recorder • Checker – check to make sure each member understands and can explain • Timekeeper 5

6. Design I: Session for Colleagues Plan a session featuring the highlights of this workshop • What are 2-3 goals you have for your colleagues? • Select one of these goals and design an activity that would help your colleagues meet this goal? • How will you assess their achievement of the goal? • What materials and resources do you need? 6

7. Design 2: Course/Lesson Stage 3.Plan Learning Activities & Instruction • What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, and principles) and skills (procedures) will students need to perform effectively and achieve desired results? • What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills? • What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it be taught, in light of performance goals? • What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals? • Is the overall design coherent and effective? 7

8. Worksheet 1 Worksheet for Designing a Course 8

9. Professor's Role in • Formal Cooperative Learning • -- Planning Form Overview -- • Specifying Objectives • Making Decisions • Explaining Task, Positive Interdependence, and Individual Accountability • Monitoring and Intervening to Teach Skills • Evaluating Students' Achievement and Group Effectiveness 9

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12. Goals and Objectives Instruction Effective Course Design (Felder & Brent, 1999) EC 2000 Bloom’s Taxonomy Course-specific goals & objectives Classroom assessment techniques Technology Cooperative learning Students Assessment Other experiences Tests Other measures Lectures Labs 12

13. 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 13

14. Identifying, Formulating And Solving Problems 14

15. Problem Identification What are the problems, challenges, and barriers interfering with our progress? Develop a List of Problems 1. Individually B Jot down as many problems, etc that come to mind in about 2 minutes 2. Cooperatively B Share individual lists and create a joint list in about 5 minutes Do Not Solve (yet) Be Realistic and Specific 15

16. Addressing Problems -Iteration One • Select One Problem • 2. Clarify the Problem • 3. BRAINSTORMING B Create at least Three Possible Actions that will Solve, Resolve or Eliminate the Problem • 4. PLANNING B Prioritize the Possible Solutions: Plan A, Plan B...Develop a Plan • 5. Establish Specifications, Constraints, Criteria for Workable Solutions 16

17. Implement a Process (such as this) to Identify, Formulate, and Solve Problems • Expect Some Problems, Challenges, and Barriers • Recognize problems when they appear (or before they appear) • With one or more colleagues, develop three or more solutions • Implement one, evaluate, replan, and retry 17

18. The biggest and most long-lasting reforms of undergraduate education will come when individual faculty or small groups of instructors adopt the view of themselves as reformers within their immediate sphere of influence, the classes they teach every day. K. Patricia Cross 18

19. Workshop Evaluation • Please complete and submit the workshop evaluation • Thank you for your hard work and cooperation! 19