Active Learning Strategies

Contents
Learning happens through active engagement Active Learning and Universal Design Selected Active Learning Strategies Problem-Solving Problem-Based Learning Team-Based Learning Case studies Role-playing Debate Creation of visual depictions Activities involving movement (kinesthetic learning) Resources Across Disciplines STEM Disciplines

Learning happens through active engagement

No matter what goals we would like our students to achieve to learn foundational knowledge in the field, solve problems proficiently, to raise and investigate new questions, work together productively, develop disciplined habits, refine techniques or performance skills, to think critically and creatively; communicate effectively orally or in writing, or any other objectives we know that they will need to do things, engage with ideas, practice, try, stumble, revise, talk, write, challenge, think, work. These verbs are all linked to activity and involvement with the content of the course. People learn by being called upon to use skills and information in a variety of contexts that mean something to them. They improve by trying to use their developing skills and knowledge without taking a great risk. After they receive feedback about what they

have done well and what they need to work on, they try again. Some learning goals are best achieved through working with others, being exposed to disparate perspectives and ways of approaching a problem, unfamiliar worldviews and values, different assumptions or priorities, and diverse talents and challenges. Collaborative Learning (Word document) addresses some of the important issues and questions that face faculty who use collaborative learning in their classes. The active learning strategies discussed below are only some of the ways faculty can encourage students interest and involvement in learning. As you explore these active learning suggestions and ideas of your own, consider which will help your students fulfill the particular learning objectives you have established. Try to offer a variety of means through which students can engage with and learn what you are teaching. Back to Contents

Active Learning and Universal Design

Active learning, like all other course elements, can be more or less inclusive of the diverse learners in your class. It is helpful to analyze your planned activities in light of universal design considerations. For instance: If this is a collaborative activity, will English language learners, students who are shy or lack confidence, and those who take longer to process or formulate speech be able to participate comfortably? Is it feasible to provide the problems/tasks ahead of time? Is there a role for asynchronous online discussion (as on Blackboards discussion board)? Each student will come to collaborative activities with different levels of experience and different attitudes toward working with others. Have you included measures to get everyone willing to give it their best? Have you trained students in the skills they will need to feel comfortable, work successfully together and complete the task? Universal design for learning emphasizes the use of multiple modalities for presentation of information, engagement with course content, and expression of learning. Do your active learning experiences employ a variety of modalities? Consider, for example, providing simple items for students to manipulate as they discuss and solve problems or demonstrate relationships or processes.1

For a study that documents education students use of simple material items as tools for understanding, communicating, and demonstrating during collaborative problem-solving, see Elvira K Kati, Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, and Keith H. Weber. Material Mediation: Tools and

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 2

Selected Active Learning Strategies

Problem-solving
The ability to solve problems is an almost universally valued skill, and many faculty seek to help their students become expert problem-solvers. There are endless options for practice at solving problems, whether publicly, privately, individually, or collaboratively. Faculty should structure problem-solving activities so that students feel safe trying out approaches, making mistakes, and revising in response to feedback. The tasks should be relatively simple to start and become progressively more difficult and complex; this gives students chances to succeed early in the semester and builds confidence and skills for taking on greater challenges. It may be appropriate to build scaffolding that helps students develop sound problemsolving strategies and arrive at good solutions. You can eventually remove the extra support when students have progressed to the appropriate level of proficiency. For example, when confronted for the first time with a multifaceted problem, students may need guidance to discern what issues they need to consider and decide. The instructor may provide scaffolding to get them ready to solve the problem by leading the class in identifying issues and questions raised by the problem. Barkley, Cross, and Majors chapter on collaborative learning techniques for problem solving is an excellent source for ideas about problem-solving activities.2 It discusses in depth six different techniques and includes numerous examples. Here is a brief description of each technique: 1. Think-Aloud Pair Problem-Solving (TAPPS): One partner solves a problem aloud while the other listens, then poses questions, probes, or otherwise responds. 2. Send-a-Problem: Students in small groups solve a different problem, then pass their problem on to another group to solve. After several passes, the final group to get the problem evaluates each groups solution and chooses the best.

Representations Supporting Collaborative Problem-Solving Discourse, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 21.1 (2009): 13-24.
2

Collaborative Learning Techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2005: 169-204.

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 3

3. Case Study: Students read a description of a real-life case scenario, articulate the problem(s) and issues, and come up with a plausible resolution or response. 4. Structured Problem-Solving: Students follow a defined process to solve one or more problems. (The instructor could provide the structure, or students could propose possibilities, discuss them, and settle on one to use.) 5. Analytic Teams: This is a good strategy for preparing to solve a complex problem, especially when students need to gather or digest information or identify arguments and evidence. When watching a film, listening to a lecture or presentation, or reading one or more articles or other texts, each member of the group takes responsibility for a particular role, task, or question. This allows the instructor to break down the process of critical analysis into distinct activities, and helps students understand and practice what those activities entail. 6. Group Investigation: A group of students plans, executes, and presents indepth research. The instructor can increase engagement by building in flexibility as to topic and format of presentation. Back to Contents

Problem-based learning
The problem-based learning (PBL) approach inverts the conventional model in which students first learn principles or concepts, then apply them to specific situations. In PBL, students are confronted first with a realistic problem, and then seek out what they need to learn in order to solve it. Here is the basic PBL cycle: 1. Students begin with a problem presented in narrative, visual, or audiovisual form. 2. Groups discuss the problem, determining what they already know that is relevant to the problem; what more they need to know; and how to find that information. 3. They then research the issues and questions they have identified and reconvene to discuss the issues in light of what they have learned. 4. The group members integrate their new knowledge with their existing knowledge to come up with an answer to (each stage of) the problem.

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 4

5. The cycle of identifying issues, researching, and integrating repeats as often as the instructional plan provides for. 6. Groups present their respective solutions. The basic PBL structure allows for numerous variations, including the length of time spent on a problem; the proportion of the course activities devoted to PBL; the intermediate and final work products required of each group; use of computers in class; requirements for individual work in addition to the group solution; and methods of assessment. A good PBL problem has the following characteristics: engaging and oriented to the real-world ill-structured and complex generates multiple hypotheses requires team effort facilitates desired learning outcomes builds upon previous knowledge/experiences promotes development of higher order cognitive skills. A wide range of material can be enlisted as the basis for a problem: current events, scholarly controversies, new technologies, student misconceptions, legal cases, examples from business or the professions, etc. There is a great deal of research literature that points to the efficacy of PBL for training students in higher-order thinking and teamwork skills. The authors of Practice of Problem-Based Learning assert that their students remember, integrate, and apply what they learn better through PBL; that PBL results in improved written and oral communication; and that students report a sense of personal accomplishment and an appreciably greater understanding of the course content and its connection to the discipline and their social context as a result of their PBL experiences. Resources on Problem-Based Learning Aalborg University, Denmark, UNESCO PBL home: offers links to resources, programs, and the PBL Global Network. This site also contains videos of presentations at the 2008 Research Symposium on PBL on a range of helpful topics. Amador, Jos, Libby Miles, C.B. Peters. The Practice of Problem-Based Leaning: A Guide to Implementing PBL in the Classroom. Bolton, MA: Anker Pub. Co., 2006. Written by three professors -- of sociology, biology, and writing this book DRS: Active Learning Strategies Page 5

is a basic and readable introduction to PBL. It offers concrete suggestions and strategies, along with sample problems from each of the three disciplines. Duch, Barbara J., Susan E. Groh, and Deborah E. Allen, eds. The Power of ProblemBased Learning: A practical how-to for teaching undergraduate courses in any discipline. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2001. Major, Claire H. et al. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education: Lessons from the Literature," Academic Exchange Quarterly 5.1 (spring 2001). Mitchell, John E. "Case study of the introduction of problem based learning in electronic engineering," International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education 45.2 (April 2008): 131-273. PBL Insight, the newsletter for the now- defunct undergraduate problem-based learning project at Samford University. Rangachari, P. K., Problem-Writing. On this website, youll find Prof. Rangacharis handbook, which contains concrete and practical advice about writing problems for use in PBL. Savin-Baden, Maggie. Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education: Untold Stories. Buckingham, UK and Philadelphia: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, 2000. Drawing on case studies and research, this book seeks to explain the types of learning encouraged by PBL, how to handle the challenges of implementing PBL, and how to manage the experiences of students at various points in their learning process. University of Delaware PBL site: Provides access to lists of resources, syllabuses for PBL courses, a limited number of sample problems, and a clearinghouse of information and problems (registration is free but required to access). Wilkerson, L. and W.H. Gijselaers, Eds. New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 68: Bringing Problem-based Learning to Higher Education: Theory and Practice San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Back to Contents

Team-Based Learning
Faculty who wish to use collaborative learning as a long-term and major component of a course might consider team-based learning (TBL). Four characteristics distinguish TBL from other models of collaboration:

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 6

1. Permanent teams assembled for maximal diversity in many dimensions; 2. Readiness Assurance process to establish that all team members have sufficient foundational knowledge; 3. Application activities, during which teams use what they know to solve a complex problem; and 4. Peer evaluation of team-mates.3 Resources for Team-Based Learning Team-Based Learning Collaborative. This website offers an introductory video, plus videos of student and professor accounts of using TBL. It also provides detailed guidance on implementing TBL. Team-Based Learning: Group Work that Works An outstanding video that explains the guidelines for effective team-based learning through the words of teachers and students who use it. Peer-Led Team Learning website: Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a particular form of team-based learning developed within STEM disciplines. This website provides information and resources, including access to the newsletter archive and to a general chemistry textbook constructed specifically for use in a PLTL course. Sweet, Michael. Team-Based Learning, in WikiPODia, a wiki created by members of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. This article offers an excellent overview of the distinct elements of TBL. Back to Contents

Case studies
Case study scenarios present real-life (or at least true-to-life) situations that lead students up to the moment of decision on the matter in question. Effective case studies feature one or more challenging issues; include elements of conflict; encourage empathy with the main characters; have no obvious or single correct answer; invite students to think through the question and take a position; and call for a decision.4 Because of this complexity and amenability to alternative analyses, good case studies lend themselves particularly to active group learning. However, they also function very
3

Michael Sweet explains these elements in greater detail in his WikiPODia article, TeamBased Learning.
4

Davis, Tools for Teaching, 161-5.

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 7

well as the basis for assessment of individual students knowledge and higher-order cognitive skills. As a variation on the typical use of case studies, instructors may assign students to design their own case studies based on their reading, experience, or investigation. Students can then exchange case studies to complete and discuss. Back to Contents

Role-Plays and Debates

Both role-playing and debating can happen in multiple groups simultaneously, or in a fishbowl setting, with certain students playing roles or engaging in debate, and the rest observing, perhaps subbing in, judging, or entering the discussion at a later point. To avoid unnecessary anxiety and help every student to fulfill her/his potential, give students sufficient lead time to prepare their roles or arguments. It is important to provide explicit guidance regarding expectations, responsibilities, and standards for evaluation. Back to Contents

Creation of visual depictions

When students construct visual, audiovisual, or visual-spatial representations of connections, relationships, processes, etc., they create new knowledge by thinking about, organizing, and evaluating what they are learning. Concept maps, diagrams, videos, posters, and visual metaphors give students opportunities to work with ideas in non-text-based formats, a practice that is supported by cognitive research. Offering these formats as options for assignments also adds flexibility to learning activities and assessments, so that students who work well in those modalities have a chance to excel. Back to Contents

Activities involving movement (kinesthetic learning)

Some individuals think better when they are walking or running. Similarly, some students who are kinesthetically oriented need to pick up a pen and start writing before they can think of the answers to a test. Kinesthetic learning involves the whole body, or major parts of it. When a kinesthetic learning activity is effective, the brain links the DRS: Active Learning Strategies Page 8

movements involved with the information or skill being learned. Some examples of kinesthetic activities include: Skits; Demonstrations; Use of manipulatives; Building 3-D models; Continuum exercises, in which students physically place themselves along a spectrum in response to a prompt (e.g., Americans should fund medical research so that we can cure all diseases: Agree Disagree); Walking through the stages of a process or operation as if one is an object or participant in it (e.g., a red blood cell circulating through the heart and lungs); Games requiring players to move objects, gesture, or do other actions associated with answering questions. Back to Contents

Resources
Across disciplines
Barkley, Elizabeth F., K. Patricia Cross, and Claire Howell Major. Collaborative Learning Techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. BYU Center for Teaching and Learning website has an article about collaborative learning that includes a series of short interviews with instructors about how they use collaborative learning activities in their courses. The site also has a very good bibliography of active/collaborative learning. Felder, R.M. and R. Brent. Navigating the bumpy road to student-centered instruction, College Teacher 44 (1996): 44347. Johnson, David W., Roger T. Johnson, and Karl A. Smith. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom. Edina, MA: Interaction Book Company, 1998. Matveev, Alexei V. and Richard G. Milter. An implementation of active learning: assessing the effectiveness of the team infomercial assignment, Innovations in Education and Teaching International 47(2) (May 2010): 201-13. Merlot ELIXR Project Video Case Stories: Topics under Teaching Strategies include Active Learning in Large Lectures, Community Service Learning, Nurturing Student Creativity with Video, Projects, and Engaging Students in Learning. DRS: Active Learning Strategies Page 9

Back to Contents

STEM Disciplines
Hake, Richard R. Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousandstudent survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses, American Journal of Physics 66.1 (Jan. 1998): 64-74. Peer-Led Team Learning website: Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a particular form of team-based learning developed within STEM disciplines. This website provides information and resources, including access to the newsletter archive and to a general chemistry textbook constructed specifically for use in a PLTL course. Preszler, Ralph. Replacing Lecture with Peer-Led Workshops Improves Student Learning, CBE: Life Sciences Education 8.3 (2009): 182-92. This study, conducted in introductory biology courses, found that introducing one interactive workshop session per week improved exam grades and answers to questions targeting higher-level cognitive skills; female students and students from underrepresented minority groups showed the largest improvement in grades. The intervention also improved retention of female students. Smith, K., S. D. Sheppard, D. W. Johnson, and R. T. Johnson, Pedagogies of engagement: Classroom-based practices, Journal of Engineering Education 94(1) (2005): 87101. White, H.B. A PBL Course that Uses Research Articles as Problems, in Barbara J. Duch, Susan E. Groh, and Deborah E. Allen, eds. The Power of Problem-Based Learning: A practical how-to for teaching undergraduate courses in any discipline. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2001.

Back to Contents

DRS: Active Learning Strategies

Page 10