The best answer to the question, "What is the
most
effective method of teaching?" is that it depends on
the goal, the
student, the content, and the teacher. But
the next best answer is, "students
teaching other students."
Wilbert J.
McKeachie
Author of Teaching tips: Strategies, research and theory
for
for college and university teachers, Houghton-Mifflin (1998).
Active Learning *
Most of the time, in a typical classroom setting, students are involved only
passively in learning, i.e., in listening to the instructor, looking at
the occasional overhead or slide, and reading (when required) the text book.
Research shows that such passive involvement generally leads to a limited
retention of knowledge by students, as indicated in the 'cone of learning' shown
below.
The Cone of
Learning
(According to Ronald A. Berk in his book "Professors are from Mars. Students
are from Snickers" (Mendota Press), the only way to get 100% retention of
information is by:
" ... hearing, seeing, doing, smelling, feeling,
tasting, inhaling, injecting and purchasing on credit ... "
some
of which are highly illegal in the classroom!)
However, research also indicates that by re-organizing or adapting the ways
they present material to students, instructors can create an environment in
which knowledge retention is significantly increased; of course, such situations
require the cooperation of the students themselves. One of the best methods is
to implement so-called active learning.
OK, so what is active learning? Quite
simply, it is involving students directly and actively in the learning process
itself. This means that instead of simply receiving information verbally and
visually, students are receiving and participating and doing. The
latter grouping is what is meant by active
learning. So, in simple terms then, active
learning is:
engaging students in doing something besides listening to a lecture and
taking notes to help them learn and apply course material. Students may be
involved in talking and listening to one another, or writing, reading and
reflecting individually.
A process I use a lot in the classroom is
collaborative learning, which is:
a subset of active learning activities that engage students in
interacting with one another while learning and applying the course material.
Usually it involves breaking the class into small groups (of 2 or 3 students)
and me posing a question, often of a conceptual nature, and allowing each
group to discuss a possible answer for a period of a minute or two. I then
seek answers at random.
It is important to realize that students
sitting in a group and studying together, or group projects in which one or two
students do all the work, do not constitute active nor collaborative learning.
Instructors and students alike will want to know ... "What are the
benefits of active and collaborative learning?" In addition to the obvious
advantages of information retention many research studies show that there
will be improvements in:
- student-faculty interaction,
- student-student interaction,
- academic achievement (i.e., grades),
- communication skills,
- higher-level thinking skills,
- teamwork,
- attitude towards the subject and motivation to learn.
The
reason why it works is that:
- individual students may get stuck on a problem and give up, whereas groups
of students tend to keep going,
- students become exposed to alternative problem-solving strategies,
- students are much less fearful of generating and answering questions among
themselves than individually and directly to the instructor in class,
- and as McKeachie says, (see the quote at the top of the page), students
learn best what they teach!
I am an advocate of active learning because I have used it and seen that
it really does work! ... honestly!
* Adapted from R.M. Felder and R. Brent Effective
Teaching Workshop, North Carolina State University, 1997.
