Helping students engage in active learning during class

Active learning is commonly defined as activities that students do to construct knowledge and understanding. The activities vary but require students to engage in higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking. Although not always explicitly noted, metacognition—students’ thinking about their own learning—is an important element, providing the link between activity and learning. In one of the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis of the undergraduate STEM education literature to date, (Freeman et al., 2014), suggests that students performing in the 50th percentile, for example, of a class based on traditional lecturing would, under active learning, move to the 68th percentile of that class. https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410

McConnell (1996) explored the effects and usefulness of active learning in the computer science classroom. He advocated for instructors to use proven active learning techniques in their classes despite perceived higher risks – Active learning [1] gets students involved in activity in the classroom rather than passively listening to a lecture…This is important, because students who are passive have a decline in concentration after 10-15 minutes in a 50-minute lecture [4]. pg 52 – https://users.cs.jmu.edu/adamses/Web/CS430/Lectures/p52-mcconnell.pdf – This article includes examples of active learning in a CS class.

The K Patricia Cross Academy https://kpcrossacademy.org/ has compiled several active learning techniques for you to consider in your teaching practice. Some of you (based on your bookshelves), will recognize K. Patricia Cross from the classic book: Classroom Assessment Techniques: a handbook for college teachers https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/4211327

Each activity at the Cross Academy includes videos and supplemental materials that you can use to customize for your teaching needs. I have a few of the strategies found at the Cross Academy below for your consideration:

• • Background  Knowledge Probe – a short, simple, focused questionnaire that students fill out at the beginning of a course or start of a new unit that helps teachers identify the best starting point for the class as a whole: https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/background-knowledge-probe/
  • Comprehensive Factors List – students write all the relevant factors they can think of about a specific topic, drawing from course content and personal experiences. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/comprehensive-factors-list
  • Update your Classmate – short writing activity where students explain what they learned in a previous class session to set the stage for new learning. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/update-your-classmate/
  • Note-Taking Pairs student partners work together to improve their individual notes. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/note-taking-pairs/
  • Analytic Teams – each team member assumes a different role with specific responsibilities to perform while listening to a lecture or watching a video. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/analytic-teams
  • Jigsaw – students work in small groups to develop knowledge about a given topic before teaching what they have learned to another group. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/jigsaw/
  • Individual Readiness Assurance Tests – closed-book quizzes that students complete after an out-of-class reading, video, or other homework assignment. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/individual-readiness-assurance-tests/
  • Guided Notes – instructor provides a set of partial notes that students complete during the lecture, focusing their attention on key points. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/guided-notes/
  • Punctuated Lectures – During a Punctuated Lecture, students listen to the lecture for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. At the end of the lecture segment, the teacher pauses and asks students to answer a question about what they are doing at that moment. https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/punctuated-lecture/