By Diane Starke, El Paso Community College
Research has demonstrated that students learn more if they are actively engaged with the material they are studying. This self-paced module consists of annotated websites which include definitions, active learning strategies for use in the college classroom, and practical suggestions and examples of active learning activities.
This website from Stoutland Elementary School in
Missouri, provides an extensive list of the various definitions of active
learning originally posted by the Teaching Resource Center at UC Davis.
Excerpts of the definitions are presented followed by full texts of the
definitions with citations.
Powerful Partnerships: A Shared Responsibility for Learning (1998 Joint Report, American Association for Higher Education, et. al.) describes learning as an inherently active process:
To locate more resources about active learning, visit
this annotated bibliography:
Felder, R., Felder, G., and Dietz, E.J. (1998). "A
longitudinal study of engineering student performance and retention vs.
comparisons with traditionally-taught students." Journal of Engineering
Education, 87(4), 469-480.
Hake, Richard R., "Interactive-engagement vs. traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses." (1998). American Journal of Physics, 66, 64- 74. http://www.physics.indiana.edu/%7Esdi/ajpv3i.pdf
Winter, D., Lemons, P., Bookman, J., Hoese, W. (2001) "Novice instructors and student-centered instruction: identifying and addressing obstacles to learning in the college science laboratory." The Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(1). Two biologists and two mathematicians collected data through clinical observations of 40 laboratory sections. Identifies and analyzes some problems with the implementation of student-centered instruction in introductory college science and mathematics laboratory courses. Potential problems include those associated with interactions between the instructor and individual students, interactions between the instructor and small groups of students, and the instructor’s ability to monitor the learning environment. Provides practical suggestions for dealing with each category of problems. http://www.iupui.edu/~josotl/VOL_2/NO_1/winters_v2_n1.pdf
Tobin, K. (1986). "Effects of teacher wait time on discourse characteristics in mathematics and language arts classes." American Educational Research Journal, 23, 191-200.
Research summaries at http://www.active-learning-site.com/sum1.htm discuss how talking less during lectures increases student learning.
Section 3: Common
Roadblocks to Active Student Participation
They go on to explain that "while the promised
benefits are real, they are neither immediate nor automatic.... D. R.
Woods (1994) observes that students forced to take major responsibility
for their own learning go through some or all of the steps psychologists
associate with trauma and grief." While the students are grousing,
faculty may have second-thoughts as well.
Another highly recommended article is "Getting Students Involved in the Classroom," excerpted from Bergquist, W.H. & Phillips, S.R. (1975). A Handbook for Faculty Development. Council for the Advancement of Small Colleges, Washington, D.C. http://www.clt.cornell.edu/campus/teach/faculty/Materials/GettingStsInvolved.pdf The authors detail the more common causes for student non-involvement—instructors using one-way communication; students preferring involvement-avoidance learning styles; courses lacking specific structures that foster participation—and offer some possible solutions.
Section 4: Using Active
Learning Techniques in the College Classroom
The Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas offers "Using Class Time Well: Active Learning"--the perfect place to start. http://www.cte.ku.edu/teachingQuestions/usingClassTime/activeLearning.shtml
Although the Active/Collaborative Learning website
from the Foundation Coalition is subtitled "Best Practices in Engineering
Education," the site contains many helpful sections, particularly
Overview, Preparing, Planning, and Implementing.
Guidelines for using active learning in the college classroom are also presented at http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/tresources/content/ActiveLearningGuidelines.pdf and include the following examples:
Adapting the Lecture Format
D.C. Seeler, D.C., Turnwald, G.H., and Bull, K.S. (1994). "From teaching to learning, part III: lectures and approaches to active learning." Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 21 (1). http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVME/V21-1/Seeler1.html Their work explores some of the practical issues related to active learning and discusses ways in which the instructor can improve upon the lecture in order to increase student learning and activity. Methods include questioning, modified lecture formats, brainstorming and tests and quizzes.
Some educators argue that a lecture is not an active method of learning. The On Course website section "Lecture as Active Learning" presents examples to the contrary. http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Miscellaneous001.htm
The website for Cleveland State University's Center for Teaching and Learning includes a section on "Active Learning for Almost Any Size Class" with ideas for three alternative lecture formats:
The On Course website mentioned previously also has a section called "Student Success Strategies" with a subheading "Interdependence" that offers 16 case studies and assignments that have already been tested in the college classroom. http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Student%20Success%20Strategies.htm
Facilitating Discussion: A Brief Guide by Katherine K. Gottschalk, Director of Freshman Writing Seminars in Cornell University's John S. Knight Writing Program, provides helpful insight on:
The "Alternatives to Large Group Discussion" website advises that "Meeting as a large group for discussion week after week can get old for students and instructors...a variety of activities [will] keep student participation and interest high. You will also find that different students shine depending upon the class format." Included are suggestions for simulations, field trips, concept maps, debates, games, invited speakers, panel presentations, and small groups. http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/taresources/altdisc.html
The website of the chemical engineering department
at McMaster University provides excellent resources for facilitating problem-based
learning--learning in which "the problem drives the learning....that
is, before students learn some knowledge they are given a problem. The
problem is posed so that the students discover that they need to learn
some new knowledge before they can solve the problem." [http://chemeng.mcmaster.ca/pbl/pbl.htm]
Included as a resource is an electronic copy of D. R. Woods' book, Problem-based
Learning: Helping Your Students Gain the Most from PBL—written
for teachers to give them the process for implementing their personal
style of PBL for their environment.
Examples of how to incorporate active learning are explained on this website. The author provides illustrations of several types of paired activities: think/pair/share, question and answer pairs, and note-checking pairs. Guidelines for using paired activities are also included. Finally, there are sections on planning an active learning activity and keys to success. http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/MinnCon/active.html
The Indiana University Teaching Handbook
discusses specific instructional methodologies, including lecturing, facilitating
discussions, group work, assessing student performance, using case studies,
managing science labs, and teaching with technology. Particularly good
are the sections on using questions as a teaching tool and facilitating
The University of Oregon's Teaching Effectiveness Program Website http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/assessment/successfulgroupassign/groups.html provides lessons learned from Michael Sweet, who used peer evaluation with a freshman seminar (see "Petting the Shark: Using Student Peer Evaluations") and an introduction to formalized Team Learning.
Larry Michaelsen's Team-Based Learning concept is differentiated from "group" learning as a process by which an instructor consciously creates the conditions that will enable student "groups" to become student "teams:
Faculty who use the TBL strategy need to be well versed in:
To see video demonstrations of Michaelsen implementing various aspects of the whole Team-Based Learning process, visit: http://atlas.services.ou.edu/idp/teamlearning/video.htm
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from resources on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The model was developed in early 1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge with Tom March, and was outlined then in "Some Thoughts About WebQuests." http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_webquests.html The article describes short-term and long-term WebQuest activities as well as the critical and non-critical attributes, thinking skills involved, and design process associated with WebQuests. Examples can be found at http://webquest.org/ under the categories "Top," "Middling," and "New."
"Strategies to Incorporate Active Learning into Online Teaching" by Diane Austin, Instructor and Distance Learning Technology Specialist, University of South Florida and Nadine D. Mescia, Director of Training, Florida Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice, University of South Florida, argue that:
Austin and Mescia list examples of active learning strategies that can be successfully adapted for use in the online classroom:
The Web: Design for Active Learning, a handbook by Katy Campbell at the University of Alberta, presents the idea of interactivity as it applies to a cohesive design including high interface, content, and instructional design. She provides six complex conceptual frameworks that interweave cognitive theories and instructional strategies. The frameworks can be used to organize lessons. In addition, she offers annotated links to "exemplary active learning sites." http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/documents/articles/activeLearning001.htm
Strategies for Use in Assorted Disciplines:
Giordano, P.J. & Hammer, E.Y. (1999). In-class collaborative learning: Practical suggestions from the teaching trenches. Teaching of Psychology, 26(1), 42-44.
Hoban, G. (Fall,1999). Using a reflective framework for experiential education in teacher education classes. Journal of Experiential Education, 22(2), 104-111
Livingston, K. (2000). When Architecture Disables: Teaching Undergraduates To Perceive Ableism in the Built Environment. Teaching Sociology, 28(3), 182-91.
Strategies for Use in Humanities Courses:
This site provides a bibliography of resources on
using active learning to teach communication—written and oral.
Frederick, P.J. (1991). Active learning in history classes. Teaching History, 16(2), 67-83.
McAndrews, L.J. (1991). Tearing down the wall: Adventures in active learning. The History Teacher, 25(1), 35-43.
Jones, P., Taylor, A. & Tate, D. (1997). Flip it! And you be the judge: Two cooperative-learning activities to teach foreign languages. Cooperative Learning and College Teaching, 7(2), 5-7.
Strategies for Use in Business and Economics Courses:
"Problem-Based Learning in Business Education:
Curriculum Design and Implementation Issues" is a journal article
in which John E. Stinson and Richard G. Milter discuss their eleven years
experience using a problem-based approach.
This site provides a bibliography of resources on
using active learning to teach business and computer science.
Berg, J.D., Hughes, J., McCabe, J., & Rayburn, K. (1995). Capital market experience for financial accounting students. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11(2), 941-958.
Krunweide, T. & Bline, D. (1997). Encouraging active learning through the use of student developed problems. The Accounting Educators' Journal, 9(2), 116-129.
Lawson, T.J. (1995). Active-learning exercises for consumer behavior courses. Teaching of Psychology, 22(3), 200-202.
Pernecky, M. (1997). Debate for the economics class-and others. College Teaching, 45(4), 136-138.
Truscott, M. H., Rustogi, H., & Young C. B. (2000). Enhancing the Macroeconomics Course: An Experiential Learning Approach. Journal of Economic Education, 31(1), 60-65.
Strategies for Use in Mathematics Courses:
Rosenthal, J.S. (1995). Active learning strategies in advanced mathematics classes. Studies in Higher Education, 20(2), 223-228.
Perkins, D. V. & Saris, R. N. (2001). A "Jigsaw Classroom" Technique for Undergraduate Statistics Courses. Teaching of Psychology, 28(2), 111-13.
Strategies for Use in Science Courses:
Anderson, C.W. (1987). Strategic teaching in science. In B.F. Jones, A.S. Palincsar, D.S. Ogle & E.G. Carr (Eds.), Strategic teaching and learning: Cognitive instruction in the content areas (pp. 73Ð91). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Benjamin, L.T. (1991). Personalization and active learning in the large introductory psychology class. Teaching of Psychology, 18(2), 68-74.
Cliff, W. H. & Curtin, L. N. (2000). The Directed Case Method. Journal of College Science Teaching, 30(1), 64-66.
Gosser, D.G. & Roth, V. (1998). The workshop chemistry project: Peer-led team learning. Journal of Chemical Education, 75(2), 185-187.
Hanks, T. W. & Wright, L. L. (2002). Techniques in Chemistry: The Centerpiece of a Research-Oriented Curriculum. Journal of Chemical Education, 79(9), 1127-30.
Hoffman, E. A. (2001). Successful Application of Active Learning Techniques to Introductory Microbiology. Microbiology Education, 2(1), 5-11.
Lunsford, B.E., & Herzog, M.J.R. (1997). Active learning in anatomy and physiology: Student reactions & outcomes in a nontraditional A&P course. The American Biology Teacher, 59(2), 80-84.
Meyers, S.A. (1997). Increasing student participation and productivity in small-group activities for psychology classes. Teaching of Psychology, 24(2), 105-115.
Modell, H.I. & Michael J.A. (1993). Promoting active learning in the life science classroom. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Savarese, M. (1998). Collaborative learning in an upper-division university geobiology course. Journal of Geoscience Education, 46(1), 61-66
Weimer, M.G. (Jan. 1997). Problem-based learning
models, an effective alternative in science courses. The Teaching
Professor, 11(1), 4.