Developing Curriculum and Teaching for Active and Engaged Learning

1
Developing Curriculum and Teaching for Active
and Engaged Learning

• June 8 - 11, 2009
• Day Three
• Collaborative Learning Strategies
• Professor John M. Dirkx Professor Julie
  Brockman
• Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education School of
  Labor Michigan State University Industrial
  Relations
• dirkx_at_msu.edu Michigan State University
• brockma4_at_msu.edu

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Review of Day Two

• The lesson plan as a
• form of curriculum development
• Principles of effective practice in teaching
• Strategies for fostering active learning
• The active lecture

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Day Three

• Characteristics of effective collaborative
  learning
• Teaching by discussion
• The case or problem-based method

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Before we begin

• Are there any questions or comments about
  anything we have covered so far?

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Collaborative Learning Strategies to Foster
Active Learning
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Characteristics of Effective Collaborative
Learning

• Usually involves small groups of students five
  to eight per group
• Involves active participation of all members
• Focuses on application of knowledge or problem
  solving
• Makes use of a common goal, theme, problem,
  question, or focus

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Examples of Collaborative Learning Methods

• Small group discussion
• Case study
• Project-based learning
• Problem-based learning

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Reflective activity

• Reflect individually on the following
• What are some different examples of how we have
  used collaborative learning methods in this
  workshop so far? Be as specific as you can
• Join with two others to share your responses
• In what ways do the examples reflect
  characteristics of collaborative learning?

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Teaching by Discussion
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Starting Discussion

• Starting with a common experience
• Starting with questions
• Starting with a controversy
• Starting with a problem or a case

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Facilitating Discussion

• Break the focus of discussion into subparts and
  build on these subparts
• Facilitate a developmental discussion by asking
  questions about the subparts
• Use open-ended questions
• Avoid passing judgments on student comments

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Helping Students Learn to Discuss

• Stress importance of learning through discussion
• Point out that willingness to openly talk
  develops over time
• Encourage planning and follow-up

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Helping Students Learn to Discuss

• Have students build on ideas of others
• Periodically review or debrief discussions
• Encourage sensitivity towards feelings of others

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Barriers to Discussion

• Student passivity
• Students dont value discussion
• Fear of criticism or looking stupid
• Premature solutions
• Looking for answer teacher wants

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Addressing Nonparticipants

• Create an expectation for participation and
  continue to stress its importance and value
• Help students get acquainted
• Ask students to work in pairs or subgroups
• Have students first write out response
• Ask general questions that have no right or wrong
  answer

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Dealing with Dominating Members

• Pose problem to the whole class
• Use observers in class who report back to whole
  group
• Record parts or all of the discussion and play
  back portions of it to the class
• Talk directly to the student outside of class

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They Dont Read Assignment

• Give students questions related to the assignment
  before the day of discussion
• Summarize needed points or have students scan
  material (use this sparingly)
• Present problem to students for discussion

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Addressing Conflicts in Discussion

• Address conflicts directly and openly
• Encourage students to use texts and facts to
  address conflict
• Use two-column method for addressing and
  deeping understanding of conflict

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Facilitating Emotional Issues

• Take into consideration individual students
  before intervening
• Ask to speak to student outside of class
• Mirror emotions back to group or individual
• Dont take emotional issues personally

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Teaching by Discussion

• Demonstration

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Debriefing of the Demonstration
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Lunch Break
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The Case Study

• An Example of a Collaborative
• and Active Learning Strategy

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We will consider

• Characteristics of a Case Study
• Developing a Case Study
• Preparing Groups for a Case Study
• Provide a Framework for Analyzing the Case
• Reporting of the Groups
• Group Review of Process

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Characteristics of a Case Study

• Focus of the case
• A particular realistic event, incident, problem,
  or situation (real or simulated from real-life
  events)
• Presented usually in written form
• Uses small groups of five to eight students

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Characteristics of a Case Study

• Group uses consensus decision-making processes
• Develops higher order thinking skills, teamwork,
  communication and conflict resolution skills

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Demonstration of the Case Study Method

• What is the problem or issue in this case?
• Develop hypotheses as to what is causing the
  problem.
• What evidence is there to support or eliminate
  any of the hypotheses?
• What conclusions or recommendations can you make
  about addressing the problem?

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Developing a Case Study

• Develop a detailed description of a real or
  simulated situation or problem in practice
• For example, I use the problem of students
  dropping out of adult education or higher
  education classes
• What can or should the teacher do?

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Developing a Case Study

• Focus the case on key ideas or concepts you want
  students to learn
• In my example, understanding why adults learn and
  their motivation to learn are the key concepts
• How can students use this concept to better
  understand
• The problem
• Why it is a problem
• What can be done about the problem?

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Preparing Groups for a Case Study

• Divide class up into heterogenous groups of five
  to eight
• Ask each group to select a facilitator and a
  recorder
• Have them read over the case and provide
  opportunity for them to ask questions

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Provide a Framework for Analyzing the Case

• What is the situation? What are the relevant
  facts of the case?
• What is the problem?
• What do they think is the problem?
• Why is it a problem?

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Provide a Framework for Analyzing the Case

• Hypotheses
• Using the theories and concepts being studied,
  what might be causing the problem or contributing
  to the problem?
• What evidence can they provide to support this
  hypothesis?

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Provide a Framework for Analyzing the Case

• Recommendations
• What can be done to address the causes of the
  problem?
• What evidence from the theories and concepts
  being studied supports these actions?
• Barriers and challenges to recommendations
• Given the context, what challenges can they
  anticipate in implementing the recommendations?
• How can they effectively address these challenges

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Reporting of the Groups

• Report can be written or oral or both
• To the whole class
• To the instructor

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Group Review of Process

• Provide period of time after work is done for
  groups to review their process
• What did they learn about the theories and
  concepts being studied?
• What went well with their work and group process?
• What would improve their group process in the
  future?

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Developing a Lesson Plan for Your Microteaching
Session

• Topic or content for the session
• Learning objectives for the session
• Materials and other resources needed
• Teaching strategies to be used to address your
  objectives for the session

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Lesson Planning for Your Microteach Session

• Introduction
• Focusing
• Development of your topic
• Explaining, modeling, or demonstration
• Practice
• Guided or monitored activity
• Assignments for independent study or practice

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Lesson Planning for Your Microteach Session

• Accommodations
• What you will do to address individual
  differences or learning needs
• Checking for understanding
• Assessing or obtaining feedback from students
• Closure
• Concluding and wrapping up the session

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Conclusion of Day Three

• Questions or concerns about the material or the
  microteach session?