1. Faculty Perceptions about Barriers to Active Learning
Joel Michael
Analysis and Critique

2. Traditional Teacher’s Role
Teacher in front of class
Writes on blackboard
Students write
Emphasizes rote memorization
Memorize facts
Students do not talk

3. Active Learning From Paper
“Active learning involves building, testing, and repairing one’s mental model of what is being learned”
What does this mean?

4. Active Learning Teacher interacts more with students
Get students involved in learning process
Ask questions
Class discussion on material
Emphasizes how to use knowledge
Use vivid examples
Students more likely to remember
Students tend to forget a lot of rote memorization!

5. Active Learning The author assumes this is a better teaching style
Is it better?
How would you measure this?
Tests may reflect the teacher’s style

6. Active Learning Education is moving in this direction in U.S.
May be good for many business and introductory courses
Courses with advance math
This teaching style may be harder to apply
I usually spent a week trying to understand advance mathematics

7. Active Learning Some courses require rote memorization History
Times, Names, Events, etc.
Political Science
Structure of Gov., Leaders, etc.
Higher level history and political science courses could use more active learning
Students need a foundation of basic knowledge

8. Active Learning Word used often is facilitated
Teacher facilitates learning
Used in University of Phoenix

9. Barriers to Active Learning
Author lists many barriers to this teaching style
Student Barriers
Faculty Barriers
Pedagogical Barriers
I critiqued some of them

10. Barriers to Active Learning Students
Students do not know how
Students do not know how to prepare for lectures
Students will not do it
Student heterogeneity
Heterogeneity means students have different ethnic and social backgrounds
How?
Possible richer discussions

11. Barriers to Active Learning Students
Reason for barrier
Students are used to traditional style of teaching since school
Rote memorization dominates education in U.S.
Grades 1 – 12

12. Barriers to Active Learning Faculty
Requires more preparation time
Teacher has less control of classroom
Colleagues do not use this method

13. Barriers to Active Learning Faculty
Poor student evaluations
From experience
Evaluations tend to correlate with the grades
Better grades leads to better evaluations

14. Barriers to Active Learning Faculty
“Lack of teacher maturity”
Have no idea
Usually teacher is more mature than students
Faculty reward structure
Teachers usually have fixed salaries
Could be bonus for good test scores
Teachers do not know how to do it

15. Barriers to Active Learning Pedagogical Issues
Pedagogical – teaching
Classrooms do not lend to this style
Classrooms are inanimate
Takes too much time and content suffers
Student assessment is more difficult
Give same tests
Class size

16. Barriers to Active Learning Pedagogical Issues
Difficult to predict outcomes
Difficult to ensure “quality control”
Each class, students learn the same material

17. Barriers to Active Learning Pedagogical Issues
Not enough resources
Teachers always complain about this
Standard class times
A class is 50 minutes

18. Criticism Do you have any complaints about article?
Is it a good article?

19. Criticism Author never defines active learning!
He gave some vague definition
Psychologists are very good at doing this!
Along with economists, etc.

20. Criticisms Valid Criticisms Students are used to traditional style
Faculty are used to traditional style
As a person gets older, the less likely they can change
Some faculty do not like questions
Students may ask a question that the professor does not know

21. Criticisms “Quality Control” Some criticisms are ludicrous!
Dynamics of classroom could change with different students
I had classes that were fun and some classes I did not like
Valid criticism
Some criticisms are ludicrous!

22. Criticisms More preparation time Classroom size
In the beginning, teachers may need more time to prepare
As they get used to it, it becomes easier
Learning Curve
Classroom size
Bigger the classroom, the more difficult
Also true for rote memorization

23. Criticisms If active learning works, then use it.
It also depends on instructor’s personality

24. Barriers to Active Learning Faculty
Teachers may not implement active learning
U.S. Federal and states gov.s are passing laws
Many students are behind
Many U.S. schools are weak
Laws make the teacher responsible for students’ scores on national tests
National tests
Determine how well student’s scored compared to the national average

25. Barriers to Active Learning Faculty
I do not like this
Forces teachers to emphasize test scores
Teacher has to focus on material for national exam
I do not think it is the teacher’s fault!
Thus, teachers are not likely to switch to active learning
Teachers are not likely to experiment with new method
School is more worried about test scores.

26. References
Michael, Joel “Faculty Perceptions about Barriers to Active Learning.” College Teaching 55(2): 42-7.