Deepening Student Engagement with Active Learning Strategies Workshop ( not a “panel”) THANK the American Society for Virology, Thea Sawicki, and David Esteban Debra Rudder Lohe, Ph.D. Director, Reinert Center Saint Louis University ASV Annual Meeting ~ July 21, 2013

Session Overview Examining Assumptions Understanding Active Learning Yours, Mine, Ours Understanding Active Learning What, Why, How Making Choices Goals, Objectives, Philosophies

Session Goals This session will . . . Introduce a range of “active learning” strategies appropriate for varying types and sizes of classes Provide examples of small, interactive lecture techniques for efficient student engagement Prepare you to make decisions about active learning techniques appropriate for your context Model active learning strategies I.e., make you do stuff!

Session Objectives After this session you should be able to . . . Identify a range of active learning strategies appropriate for your own teaching situation Explain why interactive techniques are important for learning Connect specific active learning strategies with your goals for student learning and engagement

Examining Assumptions Yours, Mine, Ours

Assumptions: You You care about teaching You may not have been taught how to teach You’re busy! And you’ve got “coverage” issues You want deeper learning from students “Think like a virologist” vs. “Regurgitate stuff I tell you” Students sometimes frustrate you And you sometimes frustrate them! Accurate? Anyone want to take issue with these?

Assumptions: Teaching Virology There is a lot of content to “cover” And it’s growing all the time? The signature pedagogy is lecture Maybe with some discussion of primary literature It happens in a lot of different contexts Graduate, undergraduate, and medical Small classes and large ones Labs, clinics, and other non-classroom “learning” spaces Accurate? Anyone want to take issue with these?

what assumptions do you make about “active learning”? So . . . what assumptions do you make about “active learning”? It’s too time-consuming! It won’t work for the classes I teach. It’s just about entertaining students. It is essential to real learning. I can’t cover enough material and do activities. It’s busy work (for me and for my students).

Assumptions: Active Learning Learning is “active” Students learn more (and more deeply) when they’re engaged Lots of things constitute “active learning” – and you may already be doing some of them Even very small active learning exercises can make a difference Active learning strategies can be applied in any size/type class

Understanding Active Learning What, Why, and How

It’s an approach, not a specific method. The What: What is A.L.? “anything that students do in the classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor’s lecture” (Paulson & Faust) Active Learning activities are “instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they’re doing” (Bonwell & Eison) “Active learning means that the mind is actively engaged. Its defining characteristics are that students are dynamic participants in their learning and that they are reflecting on and monitoring both the processes and the results of their learning.” (Barkley) START: WHAT IS ACTIVE LEARNING? Then: slide content and discussion “The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the learning process.” (Prince) It’s an approach, not a specific method.

The Why: What do cognitive psychologists say? “. . . active learning involves the development of cognition, which is achieved by acquiring ‘organized knowledge structures’ and ‘strategies for remembering, understanding, and solving problems’ . . . . active learning entails a process of interpretation, whereby new knowledge is related to prior knowledge and stored in a manner that emphasizes the elaborated meaning of these relationships.” So, for cognitive psychology, this means doing 3 key things: Activating Prior Knowledge Chunking Practicing Meta-cognitive Awareness Suzanne M. Swiderski “Active Learning: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology” (2010)

The Why: How Learning Works Ambrose et al. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning How they organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

How Learning Works: What Matters Ambrose et al. Students’ prior knowledge helps / hinders new learning How they organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. Motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. Goal-directed practice, coupled with targeted feedback, enhances the quality of learning. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours) 2% Lecture 4% Reading 7% Audiovisual 11% Demonstration 18% Discussion Group 27% Practice by Doing 31% Teach Others Immediate Use of Learning David A. Sousa How the Brain Learns (2000) Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques

The Why: Average Retention Rate from Different Teaching Methods (% of learning students can recall after 24 hours) 2% Lecture 4% Reading 7% Audiovisual 11% Demonstration 18% Discussion Group 27% Practice by Doing 31% Teach Others Immediate Use of Learning verbal processing verbal + visual processing doing / applying David A. Sousa How the Brain Learns (2000) Cited in Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques

The Why: We Want More than Recall We want the so-called “higher-order” cognitive skills, not just repetition and regurgitation (à la Bloom) Achieving higher levels of thinking requires students to do something, to engage actively in the learning process. Also, students learn best when they’re aware of where they are on this pyramid (meta-cognitive). Sitting passively in class won’t promote higher-order thinking. Neither will activities that only ask for remembering & understanding. (Caution: misalignment)

What “active learning” strategies do you already use? The How: What “active learning” strategies do you already use?

The How: How Do Others Do It? Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative Learning IGL: Project-based learning, learning that starts with: a phenomenon, absence of an expected phenomenon, perceived relationship, a controversy, a complex problem, etc. PBL: unstructured problem, multiple possible answers, with little guidance CBL: structured “case,” with no clear single solution

The How: How Do Others Do It? Interactive Lectures Problem-Based Learning Case-Based Learning Other Inquiry-Guided Learning Service-Learning Collaborative and Cooperative Learning

Interactive Lecturing Feedback Lecture Guided Lecture Responsive Lecture Pause Procedure Lecture Quiz ConcepTests One-Minute Papers Think / Pair / Share Other: Discussion Mini-Cases “Flipped” Classroom

Making Choices Goals, Objectives, and Philosophies

Barriers? Class size and/or type Time (or lack of it!) Student perceptions, motivation Faculty perceptions, lack of knowledge “Content tyranny” (Prince 2004)

Decisions? Start with course goals and your student learning objectives for each lecture / lesson. What’s the difference? Consider your teaching situation. Reflect on your teaching philosophy and teaching style.

Tips for Getting Started: You Start small – a little goes a long way, and you need different things at different times Consider whether you really are “losing” something for content Podcast lectures, have students doing things in class Begin to let students help prepare / teach / model / demonstrate things in class

Tips for Getting Started: Them Provide rationale (so students know “why”) Give them a little research on learning Introduce Bloom; use to structure exams Set expectation from the first day Ask students to devise or propose activities

What’s the I D E A? List all the concepts, ideas, points you can recall from this session. Identify the most important idea for your teaching. Describe / define why it’s important for you / your courses. Elaborate new questions it raises / calls to mind. Apply the concept: how would you use it in class? IDEA activity adapted from Feb 2010 issue of National Teaching and Learning Forum.

Questions? Debie Lohe dlohe@slu.edu

Bloom’s Taxonomy for Thinking (1956) Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4719

Goals vs. Objectives General, broad About you/course COURSE Goals LEARNING Objectives General, broad About you/course State what you or the course will do / teach Describe hopes & ideals for student learning May describe kind of learning experience Specific, concrete About students State what students will know and/or be able to do Describe observable, measurable actions Can be cognitive, affective, or psychomotor

Teaching Situation Teacher Learner Subject Class

Teaching Styles Expert Formal Authority Delegator Personal Model Facilitator Delegator Anthony F. Grasha, Teaching with Style (1996)