Active Learning method
Several years ago, when I taught Software Engineering in Asia, some professors were surprised that I required students to read lecture materials before they came to class. A professor asked: “They should only read them after your lecture why you ask them to do the opposite? Many students complained to me that they have to learn what they have not been taught. Why do you teach this way?”
I explained: “I used to lecture to students like most professors do. I found that students only understood some part of it during class. After that they had to go to the library and read the material more. Even they spent many hours reading, most would only memorize the theories but could not apply them to anything. If I tested their learning by asking them to write what they knew then most did well. However if I asked them to solve problems by applied what they learned in class, most failed. It seemed to me that students were only memorizing the material but not understood it. The evidence was they could not apply it to solve problem. Since I taught software engineering where solving problems was important, I began to look for a better solution and learned about the active learning method. Since then I always apply this method in my class.”
I require students to read the materials to learn about the overall concept before going to class. Instead of just lecturing, I use the class for discussion. I begin by asking short conceptual questions where students must answer them individually. By doing this, I know who have learned the materials and who did not. After that, I ask them to discuss with each other by explain their understanding in class. I encourage other to question them so they have to defend their position. If they do not understand the material well, they cannot defend their view. It forces everybody to really learn and understand the materials well. During that time, I walk around the classroom guiding student discussions and challenging them to solve small problems relating to the course.
In the end, I give a brief lecture to summarize everything but students are the ones who actually learning and solving problems. Since I used this method, many students often continue their discussions after class in the library where they review the materials to defend their understanding as well as their solutions. Actually, students become actively learners where I am only the guide on their learning. By having they learn the materials at least three times: before class, during class, and after class, they understand the materials better and develop their skills in solving problem as well as the soft-skill of presentation, discussion, teamwork, and be able to defend their views.
Of course, in the beginning, most students hated it. Many switched to other class where professors were using the traditional method of lecturing. Eventually, some students began to like it and many top students wanted to take my classes because of the challenge. When many of them got better job offers, some climbed to the top positions faster, the news began to spread that this method was a better way of learning; my classes began to fill up quickly. Today many schools are using this “active learning” method, there are evidences that this method of interacting is much better. Students not only perform better on a variety of tests, but also improve their problem solving skills in the industry.
Most of us have learned from the traditional way of lecturing that have been taught for thousand years. We learned how to plan our lecture well but we did not know about students' learning. The traditional method only measures students by their ability to memorize things but ignoring the understanding and the ability to apply it. That is why I think it is a problem. Of course, the problem is not with the lectures. Most professor lecture very well, but students do not learn well from passive listening. When face with problem that need to be solved, what they memorized do not help them to find a solution. Today many top students are the one with good memories but when they go to work, few of them would do well or rise to the top. The industry does not need people who can explain theories but people who can solve problem and make thing works.
Unfortunately, today this traditional lecturing continues in many places. If we do not change our teaching method, how do we expect our students to learn new way and be productive in this highly competitive world? If we do not believe in the active learning method, we can test your students’ understanding by asking them to apply what they have been taught in a real situation. If they fail, who do we blame?
Of course, students are responsible for how they learn. But professors do influence what and how they learn by apply better training method. In the information age, the pure knowledge from memorization does not work anymore. To survive and be able to compete, students must develop their skills by apply what they have learned to solve real problems. They cannot memorize equations or formulas but must truly understand them well.
When I was young, I learned many things by memorizing. I wrote down things that I need to know on notebooks. By the time of the baccalaureate exam, I had hundreds of pages that I memorized and did well on the exam. However, when I went to school in the U.S, I had a lot of problems because everything was in English. It was not easy to memorize things in a foreign language and there were so many materials that overwhelmed me. It took me a lot of efforts to pass exams and I had to admit that I struggled a lot during that time. Today when looked back, I am still scared and even have nightmares about these exams since I did not really learn much. What I have learned was when I went to work and found myself with problem that I must solved within a short time. Only then I knew that memorization was useless but understanding was more important. I have to re-learn everything and went back to all the textbooks and began to read each chapter carefully to understand the materials.
After 40 years working in the industry and 30 years teaching in university, I often tell students: “You can either learn many things in college now or you have to learn them later in your job, under extreme pressure from your manager and your team members. It is your choice.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
