Every learner needs to build new concepts into their own pre-existing knowledge. That’s the constructivist model for teaching and learning and ultimately, I believe, the rationale and justification for active learning. Like I said on Twitter a few weeks ago,
…“Active learning” means *every* student has opps to practice expert-like behaviors, not just select few who raise hands or voices.
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Loading...(This is a long, detailed post about creating and running a “jigsaw” activity. Mostly, I wrote it for myself before I forget all the details. Reinventing the wheel is bad enough – reinventing your own wheel is even worse!)
The other day, I ran a jigsaw activity in my teaching and learning course.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...One of the key findings about How People Learn is that teachers need to draw out and work with students’ existing knowledge and skills. Ken Bain, in What the Best College Teachers Do, emphasizes students need to encounter a safe environment to try, fail, get feedback, and try again before facing a summative evaluation.…
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Last week, I did something really cool: Bonni Stachowiak interviewed me about peer instruction for her Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. I was a bit nervous about talking on the phone, knowing I would be recorded, but Bonni is so knowledgeable and friendly, it turned into a great conversation between colleagues.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...I have the pleasure of facilitating a pre-conference workshop at the Cal State University LA Symposium on University Teaching. My thanks to Beverly Bondad-Brown, Cat Haras, and Adrienne Lopez at CSULA’s Center for Effective Teaching and Learning.
I’ll be talking about how to get your students thinking in expert-like ways by using peer instruction (“clickers”).…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...I teach a course about teaching and learning in #highered to a dedicated and enthusiastic group of graduate students and postdocs. One of our sessions is about “teaching-as-research,” something the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) Network describes like this:
…The improvement of teaching and learning is a dynamic and ongoing process, just as is research in any STEM* discipline.
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(Image shared by db Photography on flicker CC-BY)
In the terrific book, How People Learn, [1] the authors describe 3 key findings about how people learn, what teachers should do with those findings, and what it might look like in the classroom:
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...No matter what course you teach, one of your course-level learning outcomes should be that students will think more like experts in your field. They won’t be experts yet, not after one course or even an undergraduate degree, but they can think in more expert-like ways.…
(No Ratings Yet)Loading...One way to achieve effective, evidence-based teaching and learning in higher education is train the next generation of university faculty, today’s graduate students. Then, year after year, a new wave of trained instructors will march into lecture halls around the world until every instructor-thru-professor has a practical and theoretical background in teaching and learning.…
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