Tag: active learning

Think About Thinking

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Ever know someone who was a really bad driver but thought they were especially good? Their perceived competence was high but actual performance was low. This could be a result of poor metacognitive skills (i.e. awareness of one’s own thought processes) as discussed in this Tedx Talk. The same concept holds true for some students in the classroom. Those who feel confident about their understanding, but do poorly on exams, may lack awareness of their own true knowledge or skill. That inability to accurately judge their own competence can affect how much they study. Students with poor metacognition will often shorten their study time prematurely, thinking they have mastered course material when, in fact, their learning may actually be fragmented or inaccurate. As we prepare students for lifelong learning by developing their critical thinking, creative thinking, and interdisciplinary thinking, we should also weave metacognitive thinking throughout our curricula. Below are eight ways to integrate metacognition in your courses.

  • Use formative assessments throughout the semester (i.e. short, low-stakes assessments). Clickers are a great way to accomplish this and TLP can help you get set up.
  • Implement Exam Wrappers.
  • Use the active learning strategy “think-pair-share” so students can reflect on their own learning before sharing in a group.
  • Have students create a practice exam and then answer their questions as a homework assignment. Then, ask them for a judgement of their confidence in their understanding of the material.
  • Ask students to reflect on the strategies they’ve used in the past to learn. Were they effective? Could they be improved?
  • Assign a 60-second in-class writing where students reflect on a prompt about their learning from the homework.
  • Assign students to generate two questions from the assigned reading and think about them throughout class.
  • And perhaps most importantly, role-model your own metacognitive practices

 

Incorporate Active Learning

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As you begin this fresh new semester and explore innovative pedagogical techniques to enhance student learning, consider active learning as part of your curriculum. There is an enormous body of literature on the topic, most of which demonstrates that students learn more and fail less when they participate in the learning process rather than just passively listen to lectures. Lecture is, of course, a valuable tool for student learning but it can usually be supplemented with active learning techniques to increase engagement and understanding. Here are just a couple strategies but there are countless journal articles, books, and websites you can search that are dedicated to this topic for any discipline from Math to Art to Kinesiology.

The undeniable potential of active learning was summed up in a meta-analysis by Freeman et. al (2013). They examined 225 studies comparing lecturing to active learning. Results showed that average exam scores improved significantly in active learning sections. They also found that students in classes with traditional lecturing were 55% times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning. They concluded with one of the strongest statements I’ve ever read in this type of research…“If the experiments analyzed here had been conducted as randomized controlled trials of medical interventions, they may have been stopped for benefit—meaning that enrolling patients in the control condition [lecture only] might be discontinued because the treatment being tested [active learning] was clearly more beneficial.”

Fringe benefit #1 of active learning is that students who resist learningbecome engaged learners and can no longer get away with not participating.

Fringe benefit #2 of active learning is that since students are often out of their chair moving around, they will likely be more awake, more engaged, and getting some physical activity.

Have a great spring semester!