How can we use active learning in less-than-ideal learning environments? (e.g. old lecture halls, or old lab areas with static seating).
This week, I asked Miles Orchinik, PhD to tackle a question on classroom facilities from our new Grad TAs. Miles Orchinik, PhD, Director of Undergraduate Education Initiatives, is a neuroscientist who studies how stress alters behavior, brain function, and the endocrine system. He is also interested in science education research, particularly in how undergraduates learn core concepts, and which teaching methods are most effective at promoting learning.
"I picked this question submitted by Zane because I am learning how to deal with the issue this semester in BIO 360, Animal Physiology."
"We will all teach in less-than-ideal learning environments, but it is always possible to introduce elements of active learning into a class. Micki Chi (cognitive scientist / educational psychologist at ASU) has an excellent framework for distinguishing student activities in the classroom along a spectrum of active learning. Her interactive-constructive-active-passive (ICAP) model (linked) predicts, for example, that a student who interacts constructively with another individual will, in general, learn better than a student working alone. But a student who is actively engaged in constructing his/her own knowledge in a large lecture class is doing way more than a student sitting passively, maybe taking a few notes."
"So, while the learning processes may not be the same in a large lecture hall as they are in a seminar room or dedicated, active learning classroom we can do a lot by questioning and posing problems to students, using clickers to get responses from shy/more passive students, and/or designing lectures around the application of concepts that students work on initially outside of class."
"I have been team-teaching Animal Phys with Sara Brownell this semester. We meet twice a week in a large lecture hall and once in the SOLS Active Learning Classroom (ALC). The class activities are very similar, with the exception that students don’t work together on computers when we’re in the lecture hall. My sense is that students may not interact constructively as readily in the lecture hall as the ALC, but with TAs and instructors roaming the isles during the group work, the level of engagement is pretty impressive. Granted, we are in a nice lecture hall, there are a number of empty seats for students to maneuver, and we have four TAs (including one volunteer), so this is a pretty good situation. There’s still plenty that can be done in a dingier lecture hall with fewer TAs. Don’t let the facilities dictate learning."
Please join this conversation! Click on "Comment" below, and add some of your ideas for low-tech active learning activities!
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| "Miles in his habitat!" |
"We will all teach in less-than-ideal learning environments, but it is always possible to introduce elements of active learning into a class. Micki Chi (cognitive scientist / educational psychologist at ASU) has an excellent framework for distinguishing student activities in the classroom along a spectrum of active learning. Her interactive-constructive-active-passive (ICAP) model (linked) predicts, for example, that a student who interacts constructively with another individual will, in general, learn better than a student working alone. But a student who is actively engaged in constructing his/her own knowledge in a large lecture class is doing way more than a student sitting passively, maybe taking a few notes."
"So, while the learning processes may not be the same in a large lecture hall as they are in a seminar room or dedicated, active learning classroom we can do a lot by questioning and posing problems to students, using clickers to get responses from shy/more passive students, and/or designing lectures around the application of concepts that students work on initially outside of class."
"I have been team-teaching Animal Phys with Sara Brownell this semester. We meet twice a week in a large lecture hall and once in the SOLS Active Learning Classroom (ALC). The class activities are very similar, with the exception that students don’t work together on computers when we’re in the lecture hall. My sense is that students may not interact constructively as readily in the lecture hall as the ALC, but with TAs and instructors roaming the isles during the group work, the level of engagement is pretty impressive. Granted, we are in a nice lecture hall, there are a number of empty seats for students to maneuver, and we have four TAs (including one volunteer), so this is a pretty good situation. There’s still plenty that can be done in a dingier lecture hall with fewer TAs. Don’t let the facilities dictate learning."
Please join this conversation! Click on "Comment" below, and add some of your ideas for low-tech active learning activities!
I think that too often we start relying on computers and mobile devices, when what is really important is what Dr. Orchinik is saying. From my perspective it is not the technology, but the interaction. Use whiteboards, index cards, or giant pieces of butcher paper. Let students draw out their concept maps, hold up index cards to show their answers to 'clicker questions', get into groups and interact!
ReplyDeleteDr. Shelley E. Haydel is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences and a Researcher in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. She is actively involved with using active learning in her classroom, and offered this comment "I agree with Amy in regards to not necessarily being dependent on technology, but rather focusing on engaging the students and being creative. My MIC 379 Medical Bacteriology class meets in the ALC so we have access to great technology. However, I have been trying to think of ways to use the white boards. Getting students out of their seats and interacting can take a little prodding, but I have had great successful with this strategy. Today, students worked in groups of four to develop a creative analogy to explain the mechanisms of action of two different antibiotics. They had to draw their analogy on the white board and then explain it to the rest of the class in the last 10 minutes. They had a blast, and so did I. Using poster boards or large sheets of paper would work well also." Thanks Shelley!
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