Topic: Why Implementing Research-Based "Active" Learning Methods Does Not Seem to Work for My Students
Problem: Ever tried to have students solve problems in small groups and heard them say that it's a waste of time? That kept happening to me during the first years I taught to students in a graduate program. The first time I felt out of my depth was when a student very calmly and politely asked in front of everyone, "why don't you just tell us the correct way to do it?" I was so convinced of the benefits of my methods for their learning, that I did not think for a moment that I also needed student buy-in. Implementing research-based "active" learning methods did not seem to work for my students at the time. In this session, we will discuss why we, higher education instructors, do not automatically gain student support when we use "active" methods; we will then share ideas about why we need it, and how to get it.
Required Readings:
Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,116 (39); pp. 19251-19257. doi:10.1073/pnas.1821936116 -- LINK
Recommended Readings:
Nguyen, K., Husman, J., Borrego, M., Shekhar, P., Prince, M., Demonbrun, M., Finelli, C., Henderson, C., & Waters, C. (2017). Students’ Expectations, Types of Instruction, and Instructor Strategies Predicting Student Response to Active Learning. International Journal of Engineering Education,33(1); pp. 2-18. -- LINK
Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). The secret life of fluency. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,12(6); pp. 237-241. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.02.014 -- LINK