Active Learning Strategies
College faculty have become increasingly comfortable with Active Learning, which here
means any of a variety of strategies or pedagogical projects designed to place the primary
responsibility for creating and/or applying knowledge on the shoulders of students.
For some, active learning means transforming traditional classroom practices through
problem-based learning or collaborative projects; others move learning beyond the walls
of the classroom through community service-learning activities. Active Learning techniques
do not make the teacher's job easier. In fact, these teaching strategies usually require
a lot of up-front work from teachers (creating effective problem sets or contacting
community service groups, for example), and likewise, require careful attention from
teachers during the process. However, research suggests that these strategies greatly
increase students' retention of both knowledge and skills.
What is Active Learning?
- Active Learning (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
- Citing Meyers and Jones (1993), McKinney points out that active learning "derives
from two basic assumptions: (1) that learning is by nature an active endeavor and
(2) that different people learn in different ways." Includes a brief overview
of different active learning strategies.
- Active Learning: Creating
Excitement in the Classroom (Charles C. Bonwell & James A. Eison)
- Bonwell and Eison define active learning as "instructional activities involving
students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing." A simple Q&A
format addresses issues of how to create more "active" classroom spaces
and what barriers teachers should be
aware of.
- Navigating
the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction (Richard Felder & Rebecca
Brent)
- Offers suggestions for dealing with resistance from students as teachers attempt
to move their classes from spaces where students only "receive" knowledge
to spaces where students are co-creators of knowledge.
Motivating and Engaging Students
- Examining Student Engagement at Illinois State (Val
Famer-Dougan & Kathleen McKinney)
- Farmer-Dougan and McKinney define engagement, report on empirical evidence at ISU,
and conclude that class format, grade satisfaction, task identity, computer use,
and peer relationships have significant impact on student engagement.
- Faculty Perceptions of Student Engagement (Lana Berardi & Tom
Gerschick)
- The authors report that faculty tend to share an intuitive definition of student
engagement, and they note that faculty "may incorrectly assess the relationship
among race and ethnicity, social class, gender and student engagement."
- Strategies for Engaging Students (Val Farmer-Dougan & Kathleen
McKinney)
- Several brief suggestions for making students more active and engaged participants
in their own education, including connecting class topics with students' lives, offering
students choices in their learning, as well as using writing and various technologies.
Collaborative/Cooperative Learning
- Collaborative
v. Cooperative Learning (Ted Panitz)
- Panitz distinguishes between collaborative learning (which he refers to as a "personal
philosophy" that involves the "sharing of authority") and cooperative
learning (which he defines as a "set of processes" designed to assist learners
in accomplishing a particular task).
- Cooperative Learning: Increasing
College Faculty Instructional Productivity (David W. Johnson & Others)
- Defines cooperative learning as "the instructional use of small groups so that
students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning."
- Issues to Consider and Decisions to Make When Using Cooperative
or Collaborative Assignments (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
- McKinney offers teachers a series of heuristic questions to help guide them in making
up-front decisions that will affect the outcomes of their forays into cooperative/collaborative
pedagogies.
- Stages
of Group Development (Susquehanna U)
- This site covers several aspects of groups working together, including how to establish
effective groups.
- What is the Collaborative
Classroom? (Tinzman et al.)
- The collaborative classroom is a space of shared knowledge and shared authority.
The authors explain the roles that teachers and students can play in collaborative
learning.
- Working
in Groups: There is no “I” in Groupwork (San Francisco State)
- Working in a group can be a challenge. Make the most of your group learning experience
and learn ways to deal with conflict or avoid it altogether.
Problem-/Inquiry-Based Learning
- Problem-Based Learning: An
Introduction (James Rhem)
- Explains the basics of problem-based learning, defined here as "an instructional
strategy in which students confront contextualized, ill-structured problems and strive
to find meaningful solutions."
- Problem-Based Learning Initiative @ Southern
Illinois School of Medicine
- A useful site which includes information on how to structure micro- and macro-level
PBL.
- Using the Internet to Promote Inquiry-Based
Learning (David Jakes et al.)
- This e-paper "describe[s] a structured approach to inquiry-based learning that
uses the World Wide Web as a primary information resource. Specifically, we address
an intuitive 8-step process that begins with an essential question and ends with
a knowledge product produced by students, typically completed in a cooperative setting."
Other Resources
- Active
Learning on the Web (B. Dodge, San Diego State U)
- Active/Cooperative Learning: Best
Practices in Engineering Education (Arizona State)
- Alexander Astin's Theories of Involvement:
A Summary (K. Hutley)
- Bibliography of Student Engagement (CTLT)
- Bibliography
on Active and Cooperative Learning (R. M. Felder, North Carolina State U)
- Bibliography
on Active Learning (OSU)
- Center for Problem-Based
Learning Research and Communication (Samford)
- Cooperative/Collaborative Structures
Explicitly Designed to Promote Positive Interdependence Among Group Members (J.
Cuseo)
- Creating Life-Long Learners (J.
Manahan)
- Encouraging Students' Intrinsic Motivation (K.
McKinney)
- Encouraging Students to Prepare for
Class: A Polylog
- Inquiry Page at UIUC
- My Students Are Not Engaged in Course
Materials: What Do I Do? (V. Farmer-Dougan & K. McKinney)
- National Survey of Student Engagement (Updated
Annually)
- Problem-Based Learning Clearinghouse
- Problem-Based Learning Network (Illinois
Math and Science Academy)
- Supporting and Facilitating
Self-Directed Learning (C. Lowery)
- Teacher's
Reflection on Collaborative Learning in Class (N. Wiersema)
- Ted's Cooperative
Learning E-Book (T. Panitz)
