Facilitating Active Learning

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Facilitating Active Learning in Small Classes
Wednesday, 25 January, 2006 Peter Looker
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• Outcomes for todays workshop
• By the end of this workshop you should be able
  to
• Describe your experience of the small-class
  activities undertaken today in terms of their
  effect on learning
• Report on the extent, or range, of activities
  either directly experienced or discussed, in
  todays workshop and their appropriateness to a
  range of intended learning outcomes
• Evaluate and choose teaching and learning
  activities for small classes which are aligned
  with at least one of your intended learning
  outcomes

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What kind of small-class teaching are you doing
now? Are your small classes part of a range of
different teaching and learning activities, or do
all the teaching and learning activities in your
course consist of small classes? If the former,
what relationship do your small classes have to
your other activities? Do you use problem-based
learning in your courses?
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Discussion is vital if students are to
understand their subject. Meaning cannot be
conveyed directly but needs to be constructed
within each student. The negotiation of meaning
which takes place in discussion is a very
effective way of constructing meaning. Graham
Gibbs and Trevor Habeshaw, Preparing to Teach An
introduction to effective teaching in higher
education, Chapter 3 Teaching Small Groups
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• Small-class teaching is essentially a highly
  active learning experience for all participants,
  and assumes that students clarify their thoughts
  by talking. Students are often critical of
  small group teaching on the basis of poor
  management and the failure to encourage
  participation from all members. small-class
  teaching is most successful when it encourages
  the participation of all members of the groupall
  members of the group should have the opportunity
  to interact with all other members of the group.
• Craig McInnes, Centre for the Study of Higher
  Education, Melbourne University

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• General characteristics of active learning
• Students are involved in more than listening
• Less emphasis is placed on transmitting
  information and more on developing students
  skills
• Students are involved in higher-order thinking
  (analysis, synthesis, evaluation).
• Students are engaged in activities (e.g.,
  reading, discussing, writing).
• Greater emphasis is placed on students
  exploration of their own attitudes and values
• Charles C. Bonwell and James A. Eison (1991)
  Active Learning creating excitement in the
  Classroom. p 2.

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Some goals of small-class teaching might be the
following
Paul Ramsden (1992) Learning to Teach In Higher
Education
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• On the post-it note, write a brief response to
  the following question
• What I want my students achieve through
  small-class teaching is
• Beneath this, write one key word that best
  characterises your statement.

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• Post-it notes get redistributed.
• Stick your post-it notes on the board, and
  everyone begin to cluster key words into five
  categories.

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• Five minute plenary on the key words.
• Write down one of your course intended learning
  outcomes.
• Decide which of the key words is most appropriate
  to the intended learning outcome and join that
  group

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• Its what the student does, rather than what we
  do, that brings about a change in learning.
• Putting this statement together with your groups
  key words cluster of ideas, come up with as
  many responses as you can to the following
  question
• What range of activities might students undertake
  to achieve the key words? For example, is it
  appropriate to the achievement of the learning
  outcome that they should discuss, reflect, write,
  problem-solve, or a combination of these? (You
  might like to characterise these in the way
  Ramsden does, as examples of skills or thinking.)

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• Jigsaw exercise
• Nominate people from your (home) group to be
  reporters. You should nominate one person for
  each of the other groups.
• As a reporter, go and investigate the findings of
  your chosen group, by asking the following
  questions
• What intended learning outcomes are being
  addressed by the key words?
• What activities have been suggested as
  appropriate for addressing the intended learning
  outcomes?
• What kind of pedagogical rationale does the group
  have for choosing these strategies?

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• Reporting back.
• Return to your home group, and report your
  findings. Tell them what you think might be
  different about the other groups ideas, and what
  might be similar.
• Reflection.
• Everybody spend five minutes writing down your
  reactions (including feelings) about the
  foregoing activities. How has your own approach
  to small-class teaching been informed by the
  activities so far?

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• Fishbowl
• Five people who were not reporters sit in a
  circle to discuss with each other the statement
  below. There is a spare chair for other members
  of the audience to jump in and make a single
  comment contributing to the discussion.
• In small-class teaching the teacher should
  almost be invisible.

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• Final reflection.
• What is the most urgent question arising from
  todays workshop that you would like to talk over
  with a colleague over lunch tomorrow?

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• Quick review.
• Clustering ideas with post-it notes.
• Individual reflection.
• Group brainstorming
• Jigsaw exercise, including reporting
• Fishbowl exercise
• Reflection on what you would like to discuss
  further.

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• References
• Gibbs, G Habeshaw, T. 1989 Teaching small
  groups in Preparing to Teach
• An Introduction to Effective Teaching in Higher
  Education, pp.67-68
• Lee, A. Higgs, J. 1988, How to help students
  to learn in small groups,
• in Coz, K. Ewan, C.E. (eds.) The Medical
  Teacher (2nd edn),
• Churchill Livingston, Edinburgh, pp.37-47
• Online resources
• McInnis, C. Small Group Discussions, Centre for
  the Study of Higher Education,
• University of Melbourne, URL
• http//www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/small_gro
  up_rev2.pdf
• Higher Education Academy (UK), especially the
  Subject Network and Resources
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/48.htm
• University of Queensland, Teaching and
  Educational Development Institute (TEDI)

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• Outcomes for todays workshop
• By the end of this workshop you should be able
  to
• Describe your experience of the small-class
  activities undertaken today in terms of their
  effect on learning
• Report on the extent, or range, of activities
  either directly experienced or discussed, in
  todays workshop and their appropriateness to a
  range of intended learning outcomes
• Evaluate and choose teaching and learning
  activities for small classes which are aligned
  with at least one of your intended learning
  outcomes