Hi, I want to briefly respond to David Lawrence's comment from several days ago, about evaluation scores declining when he switched to active learning. This comment probably hit home for anyone who has tried active learning:
> >>> I watched my evaluation scores decline when I switched to "active > >>> learning." ...It was also unreasonable for me to expect them to ask questions > >>> relevant to the material we discussed in class. I had students > >>> complain they didn't learn anything from me For anyone who has ever been in this boat, you are not alone--this is a common phenomenon when introducing active learning methods to a student body that is accustomed to traditional lecture-based methods. Based on my own experiences, and those of various colleagues, I would guess that most instructors got similar comments when they first switched over from lecturing. I am fairly new to active learning myself, but I've talked with colleagues who have been doing it for years, and everyone says that it really does get better (particularly if many faculty in the department all start using it). I think comments like "I didn't learn anything" stem from problems with metacognition. How do you know when you've learned something? Memorizing 30 vocabulary words is a concrete achievement, you can point and say "There, I learned these words". But interpreting data, or designing an experiment, or predicting the outcome of a perturbation to a system are all rather amorphous--there's no one thing to point to and say "I've learned this". That can throw students for a loop. Furthermore, the level of energy and preparation required to participate in a learner-centered classroom can push students out of their comfort zones, particularly if they are accustomed to the ease of showing up and taking notes through a lecture. I am not trying to dismiss your student's comments, I'm just pointing out that some negative comments might have more to do with feeling uncomfortable in a new situation than with learning science per se. Happily, none of these issues are insurmountable. The trick is to help students be aware of their own progress, and to bring them on board with the goals of a learner-centered classroom. That is easier said than done, and it might take several years of trying before you land on the best way to accomplish that for your particular student body (but then, most new classes take several years before you're happy with them, right?). Most importantly, none of these issues mean that your students were actually not learning. You know what your students accomplished based on their exams, papers, and class participation. You probably know that they actually learned a lot, far more than they may have realized at the time. If you are convinced that active learning is better for students (and there are good data to support that), then keep on truckin'. And pat yourself on the back--changing the way you teach is a challenge, and your willingness to try says more about you as an instructor than any given crop of evaluations. Finally, if you have any colleagues who are also trying active learning, get together regularly and compare notes. It will help a lot. Best wishes, Sarah _________________________________ Sarah K Berke Postdoctoral Researcher Department of the Geophysical Sciences University of Chicago 5734 S. Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637
