Active Learning: Getting Students to Work and Think in the Classroom
By Dr. Ken Hunt

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves. — Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice," AAHE Bulletin 39: 3-7, March 1987

Class time is brief and precious, and the information we want to communicate to our students is important. Since they are novices — or pre-novices — in our fields and we are experts, it makes sense to tell them what they need to know. With this in mind, we lecture.

While lecturing is an important aspect of university instruction, it is not necessarily the only or best way of engaging students in the ideas and information we’re presenting. It’s not just that a listener’s attention often slips from high to low (then, we hope, rebounds) during the course of four hours. Lecturing induces passivity of thought, even in the best of students. They hurriedly take notes, but have little time to reflect on or question the material being jotted down. If instructors must lecture, they might consider ways of assuring themselves that students understand the major topics and concepts, and are able to separate these major issues from the minor. Better yet, they might consider ways of engaging their students — even if only for brief periods of time — in talking or writing about the ideas presented in the lecture. "Active learning" teaching techniques are now increasingly entering the teaching repertoire of professors who previously only lectured.

What is Active Learning?

Active learning is simply having students engage in some activity that forces them to think about and comment on the information presented. Students won’t simply be listening, but will be developing skills in handling concepts in our disciplines. They will analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in discussion with other students, through asking questions, or through writing. In short, students will be engaged in activities that force them to reflect upon ideas and upon how they are using those ideas. The ways of involving our students in learning activities are as varied as our disciplines. Here we’ll try to outline several areas that may help you to understand how a UOP course is designed. More and more UOP course developers are turning to such teaching tools as the web and e-mail discussion groups to enhance their courses and provide learning opportunities for the students. Course developers carefully consider andragogical questions about teaching and learning before using instructional technology. Some of the ways in which instructional technology can support learning include:

The Instructor as a Facilitator

UOP views its faculty as facilitators, where the instructor and the learner are in a special type of temporary helping relationship. The learner comes to the school because he/she feels the need for increased skills and knowledge in order to advance professionally. The instructor is there because he/she possess the subject knowledge and teaching expertise necessary to meet the needs of the learner and is a role model as a working professional. Neither party can enact his/her role without the participation of the other. In essence, joint responsibility is paved on both the instructor and the learner in facilitation.

The University of Phoenix facilitation skills manual describes 20 types of facilitation activities:

Getting your students involved in activities in the classroom also requires them regularly to assess their own degree of understanding and skill at handling concepts or problems in your discipline. Rather than allowing them to rest comfortably with a surface knowledge, it forces them to develop a deeper understanding. As a result, students are much more likely to study carefully, to regularly note their own questions or difficulties with assignments. Such students are also more likely to prepare in a consistent way for exams, not waiting until the last minute with difficulties or concerns. In short, active learning in the classroom offers significant benefits both to you and your students.

Cooperative Learning

In the UOP model, group work has been an extremely useful addition to the workshop. Not only does peer discussion help students understand and retain material, but, it also helps them develop better communication skills. Similarly, students become aware of the degree to which other students can be a valuable resource in learning. As many students will say, they know they really understand the subject matter when they must explain it or teach it to a peer.

Laurillard, in her book Rethinking University Teaching, explains that her first lecture both as a student and as a lecturer was a "wretched experience" which demanded no involvement or participation from the student. Laurillard argues that the key aspect of a student must be an essential element of the teaching strategy. It is this process which is largely absent from the traditional didactic lecture-centered teaching styles that have dominated university teaching.

Albright and Graff have noted that university institutional structures do not encourage efforts to change and improve teaching, while lack of vision of technology as an integral part of the curriculum has also led to the perpetuation of traditional teaching systems through technology, rather than innovations for university students. Yet is argued that technological change has the potential to revolutionize learning and teaching in tertiary educational settings.

The University of Phoenix has resolved these issues for our student population, but you, the faculty, must take the main responsibility not only for what but also for how your students learn. Our course developers have employed current instructional technology to create an environment where your students are helped to think constructively, critically and reflectively; areas that traditional teaching methods in universities have previously ignored.

WORKS CITED

Albright, M.J. and Gaf, D.L. (eds), Teaching in the Information Age: The Role of Electronic Technology. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 51. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1992).

Ainley P., Degrees of Difference: Higher Education in the 1900’s London: Cassell Education (1994).

Bonwell, Charles C. and James A. Eison, Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, ASHE-Eric Higher Education Report No. 1 Washington D.C.: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development, (1991).

Chickering, Arthur W. and Zelda F. Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice," AAHA Bulletin 39: 3-7, March 1987.

Faculty Development, "Facilitation Skills" manual. April, 1992 University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ.

Gonnerman, Mark, "Speaking of Teaching". Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching, Fall 1993, Vol.5, No.1.

Laurillard L., Rethinking University Teaching: A framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology. New York: Routledge (1993).

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