Active Learning Strategies

Performance Objectives:

• The teacher candidate will explain what is meant by active learning based upon the definition given by Dr. Kathleen McKinney, director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Illinois State University (see Resource I).
• The teacher candidate will characterize active learning as based on the traits provided below by Dr. Randall D. Knight.
• The teacher candidate will briefly characterize generic active learning strategies provided by McKinney in Resource I and by Wenning in Resource II.
• The teacher candidate will, when provided with one or more of the fundamental principles of active learning (see below), explain briefly and provide at least one example.
• The teacher candidate will provide a comprehensive summary of at least five active learning strategies most suitable for teaching high school physics.

Active Learning (PowerPoint presentation)

Fundamental Principles of Active Learning:

Randall D. Knight at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo has compiled a list of research-based active learning strategies most suitable for teaching physics in his book, Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching (Addison Wesley, 2004).

Before detailing the active learning strategies, Knight points out that active learning strategies have five traits which are quoted here from his 2004 book with additional commentary by Carl Wenning.

• Students spend much of class time actively engaged in physics. The engagement consists of thinking, talking, and doing physics, not merely listening to someone else talk about physics.
• Students interact with their peers. Communication between and among individual students and groups is an important component of knowledge construction - developing, sharing, and evaluating ideas and processes.
• Students receive immediate feedback on their work. Students receive corrective feedback from their peers or the course instructor as appropriate to the learning situation. Students must have a standard against which to measure their propositional and procedural knowledge.
• The instructor is more of a facilitator, less of a conveyor of knowledge. The saying, "The teacher should be a guide on the side, and not a sage on the stage" is a statement that helps make the point. Students should "construct" knowledge from observations and reflections whenever possible. This includes the development of concepts and laws from first-hand laboratory experiences.
• Students take responsibility for their knowledge. This includes student metacognition (knowing what one knows and doesn't know) and self regulation (bringing oneself into compliance with expectations).

Generic Active Learning Strategies: Resource I

Generic Active Learning Strategies: Resource II

Active Learning Strategies Suitable for Teaching High School Physics:

The following is a list of different approaches to teaching that are designed to improve student learning. The list was compiled on the basis of offering practical assistance to novice high school physics teachers. Some of the active learning strategies listed below have been show through teaching research at the university level to be highly effective in improving post-secondary student learning. Undoubtedly, the successes of these strategies provide implications for teaching high school physics. Teacher candidates should be familiar with these approaches, and the useful resources that each program provides.

Specific Strategies:

Small Group Processes:

• Cooperative Learning - Cooperative learning is the replacement for "group learning" which so frequently characterizes the high school classroom. There are major differences between cooperative learning and group learning, and one of the big differences has to do with the fact that cooperative learning includes aspects of social learning and individual and group accountability that when not present are so often lead to the failure of group learning projects.
• Problem-Based Learning - PBL (as it is more commonly referred to) is a technique for bringing real-world problems into the science classroom that really gets at the heart of the science learning process. It's a weeks-long technique for developing a meaningful form of scientific literacy. PBL deals with a recurring cycle of "what you know, what you need to know, and how you are going to find out."
• Microcomputer-Based Labs - While the use of microcomputer-based labs per se has not been shown to be in and of itself effective in increasing student learning, if properly integrated into an inquiry-oriented lab activity, MBL can contribute fun and speed, reduce the amount of required effort, make for a better approach to data collection, and be educationally profitable.
• White Boarding - An essential ingredient of the Modeling Method of Instruction, white boarding is a process of having students work in small groups to put their thinking, products, or processes on 24" x 36" (typical) dry erase boards. The contents of the dry erase boards are then shared with the whole class. After a brief presentation of the results, Socratic dialoging takes place.

Whole Group Processes:

• Peer Instruction - Based on the book by the same name (Eric Mazur, 1977), Peer Instruction according to the author "actively engages the students in their own learning. Carefully chosen questions (ConcepTests) give students an opportunity to discover and correct their misunderstandings of class material and, in the process, learn the key ideas of physics from one another." Students frequently use numbered cards to indicate their responses to particular questions, thereby giving the instructor a means to determine whether or not students understand various concepts, and whether or not redial instruction is needed, or if certain other instruction can be avoided.
• Think/Pair/Share - A variant on Mazur's Peer Instruction, this process requires students to write their responses to specific questions or problems, to then pair with a classmate to mutually review solutions, and then to share with the whole group the agreed-upon solution to the question or problem. Problems such as "ranking tasks" frequently form the basis of discussion.
• Socratic Dialoging - An essential ingredient of the Modeling Method of Instruction, Socratic dialoging is a process whereby teachers ask students to make their thinking clear. Socratic dialoging typically occurs after students have made a presentation using a white boarding process. It is not the same as discussion, but is most closely associated with informal questioning.
• Questioning - Informal assessment as part of whole group discussions not only helps instructors know what their students know and believe (e.g., misconceptions), it also can be used to help students develop critical thinking skills.
• Discussions - A good technique for helping students understand material, or help them to draw certain types of conclusions from the evidence provided. Again, this helps students develop reflection, valuation, and critical thinking skills.
• Interactive Demonstrations - It is often said that demonstrations are the life book of physics classes. They often provide for an entertaining time, but do students actually learn much from them? The answer from education research seems to suggest that they do not! A way of integrating inquiry processes into what might otherwise be a pedantic approach to demonstrations.
• Problem of the Day - Well-formulated conceptual problems form the basis of periodic class discussions. These discussions foster critical thinking on the part of the student. For instance, two bullets of the same mass and speed, one aluminum and the other rubber, strike a block of wood. The aluminum bullet penetrates the bock whereas the rubber bullet bounces off. Which of the two bullets is most likely to shatter the block? Which is most likely to move the block?
• Case Studies - These are a great way to help students learn about the nature of science, clarify values, and distinguish science from pseudoscience. The help students learn for clearly formulate and express logical arguments.

Individualized Processes:

• Homework - Teachers assign homework for a number of important reasons: to provide an opportunity for students review, apply, and integrate what has been learned in class; to help them prepare for the next class session; to extend student exploration of topics more fully than class time permits; or to help students gain skills in self-directed learning and using resources such as libraries and the World Wide Web. Homework can helps students:
  • develop mastery by practicing what they have learned.
  • acquire effective habits of self-discipline and time management.
  • learn to work independently.
  • gain a sense of personal responsibility for learning
  • develop research skills such as locating, organizing, and condensing information.
• Tutoring - Working with students on-one-on is another way of making certain that students learn subject matter. More often than not, however, this process is used to help students play "catch up," or to help students with specific difficulties learning the course subject matter.
• Homework Service - "Take (Your) Work Out of (Their) Homework" with the University of Texas Homework Service. Check out this free service available in the following subject areas: physics, chemistry, physical science, and math. Students download their unique homework sets (random variables are embedded within the problems) and work their problems offline. they log back on to submit answers, and receive immediate feedback. After the due date, they can download the complete solutions, customized to their individual problems. In the spring of 2004 there were about 8800 physics problems available (calculus based, trig based and high school), including the released 1993 and 1998 AP Physics problems (with explanations) for both B and C. Teachers can go to http://hw.utexas.edu/hw.html to create a class. Access your class (once activated) at http://hw.utexas.edu/fm.html. A help page is available at http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~patsymc/fac/fac.html. (posted August 9, 2004)
• Physics Pathway - A physics teaching web advisory consisting of "synthetic interviews" where teachers and students can "talk" to an experienced physics teacher. Ask any question you like, and get a video response from the likes of Paul Hewitt. Includes digital videos for physics teaching. Doesn't work on Mac platform. Requires MSXML which operates on PC platform only.

Specific University-Level Programs: (For details, see Knight's book.)

• Overview, Case Study Physics
• Socratic Dialog Inducing Labs
• Microcomputer-Based Labs
• Interactive Demonstrations
• Tutorials
• Workshop Physics