Active learning

I have always been attracted to unusual things. When I see something that looks interesting to me, I always try my very best to figure out the what, why and how. After I became a mother, I continued to be impressed by my daughter’s curiosity. For example, my daughter sees a penguin as a duck. To figure it out, I carefully examine the features of penguin and duck and eventually gain some knowledge in ornithology. After that, I started to realize how powerful the role our curiosity plays in our learning.

Here are some strategies that I find useful to spark my students’ curiosity.

Strategy 1: Flipped learning videos

Traditionally, flipped learning videos have been used as wonderful tools to reach every student. When thinking of a flipped learning video, we often consider videos with teachers’ direct instruction. However, I have found that flipped learning videos can be more than that! Starting this school year, I changed the way I use flipped learning videos and have received amazing feedback from my students. I make my videos with interesting scenarios and animations. Without directly teaching the students, I try to spark their curiosity and arouse their interests in learning.

Picture 1: a glance at a inquiry-type of flipped learning video

A glance at a inquiry-type of flipped learning video

Strategy 2: Trigger students’ observation

Activities like “Notice and Wonder” fit perfectly for the role to spark students’ curiosity. Have you ever noticed that Target’s sign is red in the United States and black in Australia? Same company with different branding. How about an emu and an ostrich? How similar and how different are they? Trying to answer simple questions triggered by our curiosity can lead to a huge difference in learning.

Picture 2: Can you tell which one is Target Australia and which one is Target USA?

Can you tell which one is Target Australia and which one is Target USA?

Strategy 3: Look for a pattern

I love looking for a pattern. A well-known Californian teacher Fawn Nguyen created a website called “visual patterns.” Not only my students, but I would also spend minutes and minutes on the website trying to find the general rule for a set of visual patterns. By looking for a pattern, my students and I gain excitement and achievement by accomplishing the mystery of the pattern.

Picture 3: Visual Patterns created by Ms. Fawn Nguyen at www.visualpatterns.org

Visual Patterns created by Ms. Fawn Nguyen at www.visualpatterns.org

Curiosity is such a powerful tool for us to engage our students. Almost all people are attracted to unusual or unknown things. If you are looking for a way to reach every student, why not considering trying to spark your students’ curiosity.

Barb and Kirsten have been friends since joining Monash University’s Office of Learning and Teaching (formerly Office of the Vice-Provost Learning and Teaching) in 2014. As part of a team of recently appointed educational designers, they set about creating just-in-time resources for teachers (BYTES) that would assist them in building knowledge and skills for applying active learning in the student-centred education landscape that lessens the reliance on didactic teaching.

Are you ready? How we prepare our students for learning

Unit Enhancement began in earnest at Monash University as part of the bigger picture of improving learning and teaching. The message was simple and to the point. Scaffold learning through the introduction of pre- and post-class activities, active learning in the face-to-face time, constructive alignment, and formative assessment. This effective framework includes guidelines and resources to support the development of learning materials and activities for both face-to-face and online modes that effectively blur the line between the modes to create an enhanced learning experience.

After moving into faculties, both Barb and Kirsten have developed blended learning approaches that have clearly articulated learning pathways that scaffold the students as they build cognitive frameworks to support the construction of learning. Together with a science educator, Barb published a study on the blended learning approach in one science unit.

Our role in the faculties has been critical to a change in teaching approaches and adoption of active learning pedagogy. Previously, lectures have been very content heavy, with lecturers relying on students doing the pre-reading. This has been a model of teaching in universities for generations but it does not actually facilitate learning in that valuable face to face time. Instead, lecturers found themselves going back over content that students could have / should have engaged with through reading. Students came to lectures unprepared and thereby not cognitively ready to process the new information or concepts.

By supporting teachers through a changing paradigm from didactic to flipped and active learning, we have enabled an environment of rich learning experiences for both the educator and the student.

In our workshop at FlipCon 2018 in Melbourne, we will give you the framework and strategies to help you develop your own active learning pedagogy. This will free you from a didactic approach and give you more time to scaffold your students through learning materials and assessments that are complex and require the development of higher order thinking skills.

References:

Gleadow R, Macfarlan B and Honeydew M. Design for learning – a case study of blended learning in a science unit [version 2; referees: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2015, 4:898
(doi: 10.12688/f1000research.7032.2)