Activity based learning Helen Walmsley-Smith and Duncan Hindmarch

Session aim: To develop active learning approaches in our practice Objectives: Identify key activity-based pedagogical approaches Participate in active learning tasks Highlight some technologies to support active learning Reflect on own practice It’s not about telling you what to do!

Mix pair share Bags away, laptops off and pick up your pen! Stand up and walk around the room When I call ‘pair’ find the person closest to you and sit down Say hello, make sure you know their name and work role then go on to…

Timed pair share: #staffstel A speaks for 1 minute about their favourite teaching activity, B listens B tells A something positive they learned from listening Swap roles #staffstel

Mini-lecture: What is active learning? Whilst listening, take notes on the following: What is active learning? What are key principles of active learning?

What is active learning? Opportunity to apply prior learning and experiences Practical based tasks connect knowledge to realistic and useful work-based scenarios Pair and group tasks can help to build broader social/employability skills Feedback: informs learners about incomplete understandings and encourages them to fix this, for example by helping each other. Gives teachers regular, informal feedback on what learners understand, and who needs help Develops higher level thinking skills such as analysis problem solving, and evaluation We learn by doing. Research shows that active learning is much better recalled, enjoyed and understood. Active methods require us to ‘make our own meaning’ , that is, develop our own conceptualisations of what we are learning. Geoff Petty Remember Bloom’s Taxonomy… Hattie – highest effect size of regular feedback highest (see also Black and Wiliam)

Kagan key principles: Pies POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE The learning task promotes teamwork and students experience themselves as being on the same side; INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY Each student is held accountable for their individual contribution; EQUAL PARTICIPATION Students participate about equally; and SIMULTANEOUS INTERACTION Many students are engaged at once. Source: Kagan Cooperative Learning – it’s all about engagement. (2008) Set clear time boundaries Consider extension activities for faster groups Remember to assess learning throughout Mix with passive learning

Active learning: additional principles? Set clear time boundaries Consider extension activities for faster groups Remember to assess learning throughout Mix with passive learning

Lecture review task Pair task (2 minutes) Compare and agree your notes on the following questions: What is active learning? What are key principles of active learning? Assessment Any areas of disagreement in your notes? Discuss and agree one question for the lecturer. What other ways can we make a lecture more interactive? Allocate specific topics to focus on then reconstruct in pairs/groups Specific topics then must come up with a question each. Digital notebook, shareable, searchable

30 seconds to go… Time to start completing your discussion Summarise your main conclusions

Ok time to finish your discussion Politely nudge anyone still talking On-screen classroom timer http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

How engaged were you during the lecture? Why? Why not? Lecture reflections Group 1: How engaged were you during the lecture? Why? Why not? Group 2: What strategies were used to mix active and passive approaches to learning? 3 minutes Collaborative web-page for collating ideas

Kagan Cooperative Active content delivery Memorise your teaching approach definition (1 minute) Peer teaching and assessment (3 minutes) Form a pair and recite your approach and definition Test that your partner has memorised your key information correctly. Swap roles When you have learnt each other’s information, swap cards and find another partner Form new pairs and repeat (3 mins) Form new pairs and repeat… Model this first BB Tests and Quizzes Socrative quizzes

Technologies for Active Learning In your group discuss the tools and pedagogic approach you have been given For tips go to http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/telexplorer/ See if you can devise a series of activities that you could use with this tool Share your ideas with the other group #staffstel

Reflection and Evaluation What changes could you make to your teaching practice? What support will you need? For further information and videos, go to Iris/Digital U home to see resources for: Activity-based learning Teaching with… tools pages Workshops and events Evaluate today’s session (on low tech post-its!) Show the web page