Effective or Active Learning Environment for Science

Effective/Active Learning
Environment for Science
EQUIP/Amdeselassie A Amde
A Training on Lecture-based Model, 3rd GSST, 13 – 16 Dec.
2012, Univ. of Gondar
Amdselassie A Amde, Department of Physics & ADRC, University
of Gondar, mdselassie@gmail.com

Outline
I. Shift Has Happened!
II. 21st Century Skills
III. Why Do Students Experience Difficulties in Learning?
IV. Designing Effective Learning Environment(Factors to
be Considered)
V. Examples of Effective Learning Environment
VI. The Lecture-based Model
VII. Future Training

I. Shift has Happened!
 Watch the clip “Do You Know?” 21st C. Learning Tools!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZegg_iVFDM)
 Write down some important ideas & changes you noticed
from the clip!
 Please include the relevant changes in Ethiopia & update
the clip! (You can use video editing & sharing tools freely
available online).

II. 21st Century Skills … for Science &
Technology Graduates
(http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework &
http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc)
 Mastery of core subject knowledge & 21st C. themes
 Learning and Innovation Skills (Creativity and Innovation,
Critical Thinking and Non-routine Problem Solving, and
Communication and Collaboration);
 Complex Communication skills;
 Life and Career Skills (Adaptability, Self-management/Self-
development, …);
 Systems Thinking;
 Constructing and Evaluating Evidence-based Arguments,

III. Why Do Students Experience Difficulties
in Learning (Science)?
 Nobel Laureate Carl Weizman argues that “The Old
Science Education Model” is actually responsible …
 Hence investigating the Physical & Cognitive Architecture
of the traditional learning model can provide insights …

Old Science Education Model (C. Weizman)

1. Physical and Cognitive Architecture for
Traditional Learning Environment
1. Imagine yourself as an undergraduate attending a lecture
in classroom,
 What did you real hate about attending lectures and
about the classrooms?
 Think of a memorable positive & negative learning
experience.

… Physical and Cognitive Architecture
2. Compare architectures of the following learning spaces
(R. Beichner)

3. Compare the learning activities in the following pictures.
Which one is participatory?

4. Compare the learning activities that occur in the following
classes!?

2. Some of typical assumptions about traditional
classrooms (Chism and Bickford)
 Learning only happens in classrooms and at fixed times.
 Learning is an individual activity.
 What happens in classrooms is pretty much the same from
class to class and day to day.
 A classroom always has a front.
 Learning demands privacy and the removal of distractions.
 Audio-Visual is need in large rooms only to make the
lectures visible or audible.

3. Traditional learning model, used for many years:
 is content oriented, teacher-centered, and encourages little
or no student active participation,
 is limited in space & time, and
 rewards memorization over conceptual thinking.
Is traditional science learning model therefore to be blamed …
and not adequate for 21st c. education that requires expertise
and mastery of the multi-dimensional abilities?
 List Additional Challenges Relevant to our Education
Systems!

So we need an innovative learning environment or
model to achieve & measure more complex learning
(or mastery of 21st C. skills)
 Prof. C. Weizman suggested that we need a Scientific
Approach for New Science Education Model.
 Let us see what factors should be consider in designing
Effective Learning Model .

Scientific Approach to Science Education
New Science Education Model (Source: C.Weizman)

IV. Factors to be Considered in Designing
Effective Learning Environment?

1. Findings from Cognitive Science (The Cognitive
Model)
 New findings from cognitive sciences on how people learn
effectively

 Dale’s Cone of Learning

1.1. Models of Memory & Its Implications for
Instruction: (E. Redish)
 To understand learning, we must understand memory -
how information is stored & processed in the brain.
Professor, May I be excused?
My brain is full.

… Models of
 Working memory - fast but limited. Used for problem solving,
processing information, and maintaining information in our
consciousness. Handle a small number of data blocks; content
tends to fade after a few seconds.
 Long-term memory - hold a huge amount of information -
facts, data, and rules for how to use and process them - and the
information can be maintained for long periods.
 Using information from long-term memory requires that it be
activated (brought into working memory).
 Activation of information in long-term memory is productive
(created on the spot from small, stable parts) and associative
(activating an element leads to activation of other elements).

1.2 Implications of the Cognitive Model for Instruction
Five general principles that help us understand what happens
in classroom (E. Redish)
 The constructivism principle
Individuals build their knowledge by making connections to
existing knowledge; they use this knowledge by productively
creating a response to the information they receive.
 The context principle
What people construct depends on the context—including
their mental states.

 The change principle
It is reasonably easy to learn something that matches or
extends an existing schema, but changing a well-
established schema substantially is difficult
 The individuality principle
Since each individual constructs his or her own mental
structures, different students have different mental
responses and different approaches to learning.
 The social learning principle
For most individuals, learning is most effectively carried out
via social interactions.

2. New Role of Technology (ILT)
 Expanding Access to Education
 Anytime & Anywhere Learning
 Access to Remote Learning & Research Resources

… New Role of
 brings more interaction & insight gaining through
 personal response system (PRS), videoconferencing & web
forum;
 modeling & simulation, interactive lecture demonstration
(ILD), & computer-based measurement (MBL/CADA)
 Transform Learning to Learner-Centered
 Active Learning
 Cooperative Learning
 Problem Based Learning (PBL)

… New Role of
 Help Prepare Individual for the 21st C. Workplace
 Digital Age Literacy
 Inventive Thinking
 Higher-Order Thinking
 Effective Communication
 Help Improve Academic Management
 Library Management System
 Learning Management System (CMS & SIS)
 Digital Asset Management

3. Changes in Today’s Students/Learners
 Net-gen: e-mailing, chatting, browsing, content publishing,
 Socializing, …
 Learner’s Demography?
Is the traditional science teaching environment/model suitable
to today’s learners (the net-gen)?

Hence Effective/Active Learning Environments
 are developed by integrating education research results
with technological tools
 incorporate new and improved learning models
 transform learning from teacher-centered to student-
centered
 It requires new physical (temporal/spatial) and cognitive
architecture
Can we use technology to introduce Active Learning in the
traditional learning environment (i.e. without changing its
physical architecture)?
Replace one or more elements of the traditional structure by a
student-centered activity!?

V. Some Examples of Effective/Active
Learning Environment
Effective Learning Environment - there is more … than a
Built Pedagogy (architectural embodiments of
educational philosophies, or the ways in which a space is
designed to shape the learning that happens in that
space, D. Oblinger).
 TEAL
 SCALEUP
 Workshop/Studio-based
 Lecture-based Model

1. Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL)
TEAL is a learning format that merges lectures, simulations,
and hands-on desktop experiments to create a rich
collaborative learning experience.
http://icampus.mit.edu/projects/teal/

… TEAL
TEAL classes feature:
 Collaborative learning - students working during class in
small groups with shared laptop computers
 Desktop experiments with data acquisition links to laptops
 Media-rich visualizations and simulations delivered via
laptops and the Internet
 PRS response systems that stimulate interaction between
students and lecturers

2. Student-Centered Active Learning Environment
with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP)
 SCALE-UP is a learning environment created to facilitate active,
collaborative learning for 100 or more students.
 The spaces are carefully designed to facilitate interactions
between teams of students who work on short, interesting tasks.

… SCALEUP
http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/
SCALE-UP features:
 Students work in teams on these "tangibles" (hands-on
measurements or observations) and "ponderables"
(interesting, complex problems).
 Instructors circulate and work with teams and individuals,
engaging them in Socratic-like dialogues.
 There is no separate lab class and most of the "lectures" are
actually class-wide discussions.

VI. Lecture-based Model
1. Traditional Lecture
 Can be modified to include student interaction
 set the context
 chunk material
 ask authentic questions
 vote on a choice of answers,….
 But do not have much effect!

2. A More Structured Interaction
2.1. Peer Instruction/ConcepTest (http://galileo.harvard.edu/)
 Key Activities
a. web-based reading assignment (JiTT)
b. ConcepTests
c. conceptual exam questions
 Facilities
 PCs (none or 1 with LCD), CMS, Internet/Intranet access,
colored card or Personal Response System,
 text with concept tests Resource Sites
 recent textbooks, related courseware sites
 Examples, Demos & Practical
 Details to be provided at practical sessions!

a. Web-based Reading Assignment
 A web-based reading assignment is given before the
beginning of the class
b. ConcepTest
 challenging multiple-choice questions in 5 – 7 min segment
 concept oriented & distracters based on common student
difficulties as shown by research
 Think, Pair & Share

 THINK! Students answer the question using clickers
What can we use if we do not have PRS?

 PAIR! Students discuss the problem
with their neighbors for 2 min.
 SHARE! Students answer the question again
 Does the discussion produce a significant improvement? If
not additional materials will be presented

2.2. Interactive Lecture Demonstrations/Simulation
(http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/demonstrations/index.html)
Interactive Lecture Demonstrations/Simulations engage students in
activities that confront their prior understanding of a core concept.
Its Key features are: predict, experience & reflect.
 Key Activities
a. Predict!
 Describe the demo/sim & perform it without collecting data,
and write individual predictions
 discuss with neighbors and write consensus predictions
 hold a class discussion based on the various discussion
b. Experience!
 perform demo collecting data & display result/output, and
students write results

c. Reflect!
 hold a brief class discussion – why the answer obtained
makes sense & the others have problems

 Facilities
 Personal Computing Devices, LCD, CADA devices (and/or
simulations), software for data acquisition-analysis and
simulation-visualization
 worksheets for predictions and results
 open and free courseware and software, digital libraries,
laboratories (including virtual & remotely accessible)

2.3. Just in Time Teaching (JiTT)
(http://galileo.harvard.edu/)
 Blends Active Learning with Web Technology.
 Focuses on improving student learning through the use of brief
web-based questions delivered before a class meeting.
 Students' responses to the exercises are reviewed by the instructor
before class begins & are used to develop classroom activities
addressing learning gaps revealed in the responses.
 Goals :
 Improve conceptual understanding & problem-solving skills.
 Develop critical thinking abilities.
 Build teamwork and communication skills.
 Learn to connect classroom learning with real-world
experience.

 Focuses on two critical cognitive principles:
 Students learn more effectively if they are intellectually
engaged.
 Instructors teach more effectively if they understand what
their students think and know.
 Key Activities:
a. warm up questions on the web
b. provide answers
c. class discussion and activities
d. puzzle on the web

 Facilities
 PCs with CMS & Internet-Intranet access, LCD, Simulation
 open and free courseware and software, digital libraries,
a. Warm up questions on the web
 Before each lecture, specific, carefully chosen WarmUp
questions are assigned on the web.
 Students provide their best answers a few hours before class.
 The instructor looks at the student responses before lecture,
estimates the frequency of different responses, and selects
certain responses to include as part of the in-class discussion
and activities.

b. Class discussion and activities
 The class discussion and activities are built around the
WarmUp questions and student responses.

c. Puzzles on the Web
 At the end of a topic, a tricky question (puzzles) is put on the web for
students to answer.
 Most students attempting puzzles
get bogged down in the detail;
spend a full hour discussing the
problem, using it as an opportunity
to thoroughly review everything
that had been covered to that point
& to discuss and build problem
solving skills. (Novak and et.al.)

 Please watch the clip: “3 Steps for 21st Century Learning!”
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gauIikwAwLM)
VII. Future Training Focus!
Effective/Active Learning Environment for Science:
Recitation-based Model & Lab-based Model

References:
 E. Redish, Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite (Wiley, 2003)
 C. Weizman, Scientific Approach for Science Education (Change, Sept/Oct
2007)
 J. Bransford, A. Brown, How People Learn (National Academy Press, 1999)
 E. Mazur, Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice-Hall, 1997)
 Derek Bruff, Teaching with Classroom Response Systems (Jossey-Bass, 2009)
 D. Sokoloff and R. Thornton, “Using interactive lecture demonstrations to
create an active learning environment,” Phys. Teach. 35, 340 (1997).
 Gregor Novak, et.al., Just-In-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with
Web Technology (Addison-Wesley, 1999)
 Scott Smikins, et.al, Just in Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, and Across
the Academy (Stylus Publishing, 2009)
 C. Carmean and J. Haefner, “Mind over matter: Transforming course
management systems into effective learning environments,” Educause Rev. 37
(6), 26 (2002).

… References:
 R. Beichner, Technology for Teaching Physics, http://www.ncsu.edu/PER
 F. Reif, Applying Cognitive Science to Education (MIT Press, 2008).
 James Bellanca & Ron Brandt, 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students
(Learn Solution Tree, 2010)
 Dian G. Oblinger Educating the Net Generation (Educause, 2005)
 Dian G. Oblinger, Learning Spaces (Educause, 2005)
 Nancy V. Chism The Importance of Physical Space in Creating Supportive
Learning Environments, no. 92 (Winter 2002) (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
 Ken Fisher, Technology-enabled active learning environments: an appraisal
(CELE Exchange 2010/7)
 Victoria L. Tinio, ICT in Education (UNDP-APDIP, 2002)
 Amdeselassie A., et.al, Using e-Resources & Technology for Active Learning:
Training Manual (ADRC-EQUIP, 2009)
 Amdeselassie A., et.al, Put Your Course Online with Moodle: Training Manual
(ADRC-EQUIP, 2009)

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