Teaching with active learning method
A teacher asked me: “Do you think students can learn course materials on their own with active learning? In that case, why do they need teachers? Please explain.”
Answer: “Students can learn materials on their own but they need teachers to guide them. In active learning method, the role of teachers is very important and students cannot learn well without proper guidance from teachers. In active learning, teachers give students clear objectives of what they expect students to accomplish and good reading materials so students can teach themselves the basics to build the knowledge foundation. Class discussion is the place where teachers ask questions to lead the class into a deeper level of learning, correct any misunderstanding and review any unclear concepts. Teachers divide the course materials into several units of learning then establish clear learning goals for each unit then select reading materials corresponding to each unit where students can develop the foundation BEFORE coming to class.
Active learning requires more efforts from teacher than traditional lecturing method. Breaking up materials into separate units then creating learning goals for each is a skill that require teachers to do it several times to master it. Designing class activities that lead to effective discussions also requires a lot of time and experiences to make it effective. Teachers must constantly ask themselves “What do I want students to learn?”; “How do I make sure that students read assigned materials before coming to class?”; “What are the basic foundation that I want students to build before class?”; “What kind of questions should I ask to get students into discussion activities?”; “What knowledge can students develop after class discussion?; “How do I measure their learning effectiveness?”
In active learning, teachers only lectures on the main concepts or important things that students must know and most of the class time is for discussion where students expressing their views, asking questions, answering questions and working on problems. However, this method ONLY works if students have learned the basics by reading the assigned materials BEFORE coming to class so they are ready to learn more things.
When apply active learning method to teaching, teachers should start with simple concept then watch how students react to observe how the active learning process happens and adjust slowly until they can master this method. In the beginning, students will often react negatively such as “What do you want us to do?” or “Why do you ask that question?” or “Why don't you lecture?” Do not feel uncomfortable if this situation happens because it will. Teachers should start with a simple high level overview such as “How does information technology impact our society?” or “Explain how smartphone changes the way people communicate with each other?” These types of questions will encourage students to participate in class discussion as it does not impose a “Right” or “Wrong” answers. You need to have several discussions like that to let students feel comfortable to participate in class discussion before go to the deeper level of technical learning.
The easiest way to start with active learning is to ask students what interests them. Do NOT start with something too academic but ask them what they care about. Let them choose any technical topic and assign them to read about that from newspapers, magazines or technical websites than ask them to bring to class for discussion. To start, I often assign students to work in teams to bring technical articles from current newspapers, magazines or websites to the class for discussion. Since they can choose what technology they like, the class discussion often gets more interesting. Topics such as Apple iPhone; Google's glass to Amazon 's delivery products by drones and Facebook's sharing information or the acquisition of Instagram always make students get excited in discussions.
The next step is to ask each team to prepare a short technical presentation to the class and let the class discuss about that topic. This will help develop their soft-skills and make them feel that they are learning actively. Teacher should ask students to explore how that technical topic impacts their career or personal lives. For example: “What do you think Google glass will change your life?”; “Why do you think tablets will replace personal computer?” When students begin to interest in several technical topics they will learn more and suggest more technical articles for discussions. When students are familiar with class discussion, teachers will slowly asking more specific questions relate to what students must learn in the course starting with the questions that students currently ask. For example “If tablets will replace personal computer then what skills do you need to develop software for tablets?”; “What do you need to know about tablets and mobile application?”; “What is the difference between develop software for PC and develop app for mobile and tablets?”
As teachers, sometimes we forget that students are capable to learn the materials on their own. Of course, many like to listen to lecture because they have been doing that for many years, from elementary to high school. Therefore, it is easier and comfortable for them to sit and listen but they need to learn how to actively engage in to the learning process AND they will NOT learn that unless we force them to. It is NOT easy and it is challenging to teachers but today, technology changes fast and if students do not develop the lifelong learning habit, they will not be able to compete for jobs in this global market. Without a new generation of knowledge workers we will never be able to build a knowledge society and build a strong economy in this information age.
As teachers, we need to remind ourselves that today students not only need to learn the material, they must also learn how to make decisions about their career and their lives, they need to know what knowledge that they must have, what skills they must develop and how do they acquire them. For many years we come to class expecting our students to be unprepared so we have to tell them, lecture to them, and hope that they will learn something from us. That passive learning is no longer valid in this fast changing world. We need to change our teaching method and expect that our students come to class and are ready to learn. Our job is to guide them and encourage them to learn the material by themselves based on our guidance.
Several years ago when I began to apply this method, I told my students to read the materials before class. Of course few did, but I started to ask questions from the reading materials and pretended not to notice that most students were uncomfortable. I continued: “Since all of you have read and learned about Binary Tree, let us begin with some simple tasks. Please prepare to solve the following problem: “Given a complete binary tree, find a Maximum element.” Those who read the chapter about Binary Tree immediately started solving problem but many who did not were embarrassed. For the next few days, I continued to pretend that all students have read the materials and continued by asking them to solve problems in class and gave extra points to those who did. Within a week or so, most students began to study BEFORE coming to class and their attitude began to change.
I believe that students are capable of learning materials on their own BUT successfully creating an active learning classroom requires teachers who can give proper guidance and support to help them develop the skills and attitudes so they can become active life-long learners.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
