Active learning Approaches

Typically, teachers ask most questions in a classroom: about two every minutes. The quality of answers to these can only be so good, given the time for answers can be measured in seconds. What if students asked more questions of their own, and we gave them time to answer them? Might they be more invested in their inquiries, more keen to reveal an answer to a gap they have found for themselves?

HOLMAN’S READING LIST

For those interested in building metacognitive moments into the day, here are the articles Holman found to be useful and more or less reading-level appropriate for his high school students.

“From Degrading to De-Grading,” by Alfie Kohn
“Sermons For Grumpy Campers,” Richard Felder
“When Is a Good Day of Teaching a Bad Thing?,” by Timothy Slater
“Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction,” by Richard Felder
“Minimizing resistance to inquiry-oriented science instruction: The importance of climate setting,” by Carl J. Wenning
“Well, Duh!” — Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring,” by Alfie Kohn
“Opinion: Why TEAL Works: 10 Years Ago MIT Had a Physics Problem. TEAL Fixed It,” by Ryan Normandin

Discover the power of change with this free case study
Teachers love stretching their students’ imaginations. Anna Russell, a Visual Arts teacher at Canberra’s Melrose High School, knows this well. Her idea to incorporate the 6Ds of Solution Fluency into her teaching was the perfect fit. So she turned to the Solution Fluency Activity Planner for her primary lesson planning tool.

Using Solution Fluency as a roadmap, Anna’s students embarked on a journey of discovering the true power of symbols in society. It was the groundwork for what would be some very rich and deeply insightful student design projects.

You can learn more about Anna and her amazing students in this case study. It's yours for free!

A recent study conducted by the Research and Analytics team at Colorado State University Online found that flipping the classroom may improve student participation and attendance rates. Flipping the classroom may also create a more challenging experience for learners and foster more critical thinking.

According to Sean Burns, assessment coordinator at CSU Online, flipped classrooms made students hold each other more accountable for showing up to class prepared. When implemented the wrong way, however, flipped classrooms created a very frustrating learning environment for students. “[The students] want goals and learning objectives defined for each class, and if this is missing, they feel lost and don’t get the maximum value from the class,” he said.

Whilst unpacking the idea of Conscious Competence and Skillset, Toolset, Mindset with teachers, we came to realise many of them were having difficulty applying these concepts to their own learning, beyond a superficial level (assumption one – not all teachers are reflective learners). We found this quite provocative and decided to create a visual on our Leadership Provocation Wall. Initially we attempted to combine Conscious Competence, SOLO and the Competency Set into one rubric, but ended up dropping SOLO as we struggled to align it with the other two. We expanded on our initial thinking and included Reflective Competence and Knowledge Set to our rubric. Our first attempt was critiqued over many months by various critical friends and we eventually came up with a workable prototype to use with teachers. Our first rubric focused on Professional Learning Inquiry for teachers. This worked so well we decided to create one for student learning and trialled it with our Stage 3 students (10-11 year olds). They picked it up quicker than the teachers (assumption two – don’t underestimate young learners!).

Have you ever wondered if your students are as concerned about their learning as you are? If you prioritize student learning, you may be the only person in your classroom with that goal. Learning-centered teachers seek to coauthor classroom experiences with their students, whereas students may seek only to be taught passively. How might you inspire your students to share accountability for their learning? These five considerations can help you teach your students to be learning centered, too.

Because thinking is hard.

In a recent study, students learning via project tested better and improved applied problem-solving skills

Educators often talk about 21st-century skills and the benefits of incorporating communication, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking into lessons. These are skills students rarely learn straight out of a textbook. The best way to teach them, we’ve found, is by making these skills a relevant part of their active lives.

If that sounds daunting, rest assured, it doesn’t always have to be. One way we have taught these skills is through project-based learning (PBL), where students apply what they’ve learned during a hands-on project that is relevant to the real world — and their lives.

The University of Wisconsin's (UWISC) first cohort of students to complete a significant number of their undergraduate courses primarily through the flipped classroom model is preparing to graduate in the spring.

The college has been encouraging its instructors to switch to a flipped classroom model, where students watch recorded video lectures before class and then use class time to put their learning into practice through in-class activities and to interact with their instructors and their classmates. According to a news release from the UWISC College of Engineering, the flipped learning approach can help students develop "communication and collaboration skills that often prove just as important as the technical foundations of engineering."

When workshopping project-based learning ideas, start by thinking about where you want to go and what you want to accomplish with your students. Although technology may play a huge role in how projects are put together, you want to keep it tangible. The Solution Fluency Activity Planner was built for project-based learning. It’s a guided system that makes PBL planning both easy and super-fun.

In an earlier post here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning I talked about the 8 elements of the critical thinking process and I argued that critical thinking is  a cognitive process that requires disruptive patterns of thinking, ones that question the status quo of propositions and leads to the creation of alternative lines of reasoning.

Today I am adding to this discussion this beautiful visual created by Learningcommons which features the 6 questions a critical thinker asks. This could be used as a poster in your classroom to remind students of the kind of questions they need to ponder about and develop. Have a look and share with your colleagues.

For in-person professional development from TeachThought on effective instructional strategies or any other topic your school or district might need, contact us today.

Student-centered teaching is teaching designed for the student. This means that planning often begins with the student in mind as opposed to a school policy or curriculum artifact, for example. Done well, it can disarm some of the more intimidating parts of academia, while also shortening the distance between the student and understanding.

CURTIN University student Mona Ghiasi was named the recipient of the ABC Women in Broadcast Technology Scholarship for Western Australia.

Ms Ghiasi received four weeks paid work experience with the national broadcaster’s technology team in Perth.

She will experience first-hand the technical side of broadcasting; how the equipment works, how radio and television are transmitted and how to keep programs on air when things go wrong.

Neuroscience proves what effective educators have known all along.

In some instances, research illuminates a topic and changes our existing beliefs. For example, here’s a post that challenges the myth of preferred learning styles. Other times, you might hear about a study and say, “Well, of course that’s true!” This might be one of those moments.

Last year, Dr. Karlsson Wirebring and fellow researchers published a study that supports what many educators and parents have already suspected: students learn better when they figure things out on their own, as compared to being told what to do.  

Best Creative Engagement Strategy

(Mr Rohan McDougall, Curtin University (left), Dr Alastair Hick, KCA (right))

Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre – Curtin University
The Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre, co-founded by Cisco, Curtin University and Woodside Energy Ltd, is a new industry and research collaboration centre designed to foster co-innovation. With a foundation in radioastronomy, supercomputing and software expertise, it is growing a state-of-the-art connected community focused on leveraging data analytics, cybersecurity and digital transformation network platforms to solve industry problems. The Centre combines start-ups, small–medium enterprises, industry experts, developers and researchers in a collaborative open environment to encourage experimentation, innovation and development through brainstorming, workshops, proof-of-concept and rapid prototyping. By accelerating innovation in next-generation technologies, it aims to help Australian businesses thrive in this age of digital disruption.