Active Learning -- Creating Community and Student Learning

Contributed by Melinda Rudibaugh, Mathematics CGCC and Facilitator of MCLI’s Active Learning Series

Active learning strategies help to foster an appreciation of classmates and their contributions.  The student, who from across the room, might seem different or strange is now in your group…and you realize this person has a lot to offer toward the success of the group.  You need him!

Speaking from personal experience…yes, I learned this the hard way.  I had signed up for a graduate class with Northern Arizona University.  I was sitting toward the back of the room wondering if I had made the correct class selection.  The room was full.  I was tired.  There was a lady across the room with fly-away hair and an irritatingly high-pitched voice.  The instructor seemed to be easy enough to listen to but I was not sure the competencies would serve my research.  Then he did it…he assigned us to teams.  Not sure what method he used.  It happened quickly…and…I was placed in a team with Ms. Messy.  Except she didn’t look so strange face to face; she had a nice smile.  Funny when we were talking about the work assigned to us, I never noticed that her voice was high-pitched.  It wasn’t “irritating” any more; it was a voice I needed to hear in order to get our group project off the ground.

That graduate course turned out to be one of the most inspirational in my program.  It profoundly affected my teaching for years to come.  I became respectful of the gifts of the students who hid in the periphery of the classroom on the first meeting. While I served as a division chair and visited countless classes, I watched the scenario repeated again and again.  I urged faculty to do class-building and team exercises to make sure all felt included and valued. The experience in retrospect reminds me of the ending lines of one of Maya Angelou’s poems:  “People may not remember what you say; people may not remember what you do, but people will remember how you made them feel.”  Active learning helps students and teachers take that part of the classroom setting into account.

Tawn Hauptli, education faculty at Mesa Community College, does a wonderful, thought-provoking activity on diversity awareness for the ESAL Level II course.  She requires participants to react to various situations in their lives based upon their attributes.  For example, it may be one’s age that shapes a reaction to a type of social change that Tawn has posed.  It becomes clear that the attribute of age can overshadow others like ethnicity and religion.  It is a powerful experience to cluster in a group of people who, though looking/sounding differently are having the same human experience.

I have enjoyed the opportunity to facilitate Engaging Students in Active Learning (ESAL) for many years.  I have learned what instructors and leaders do to incorporate all of the talents in their rooms for common goals.  In Multicultural Education and Human Relations:  Valuing Diversity , David and Roger Johnson note homogeneous groups may lack the initiative to get out of their comfort zones and take risks; may become static and even boring; may engage in “groupthink”; and be less productive. The global economy drives our increasing interdependence on all peoples of the world.  We can teach the value of heterogeneous grouping by drawing attention to the diversity of ideas produced when students with a variety of backgrounds bring differing perspectives to decision-making.  The Johnsons pointed to findings that “students in a more diverse environment showed the greatest engagement in active thinking processes, growth in intellectual engagement and motivation, and growth in intellectual and academic skills” (Johnson and Johnson, p11).

Viva le difference!

Participant feedback:
Just wanted to report the success of my first two classes. In my first lab section with our “new” first year students I had a treasure hunt for items in our teaching laboratory. I had them look for things that they should already know the location (but of course they didn’t) – like fire extinguishers, eye wash station, MSDS binder, and various lab items. They had a blast and I know they won’t forget where these things are located.  This was a very effective teaching technique for information they never would have retained if I merely droned on in front of them. Thanks again for a wonderful learning experience – it felt good to be a student again.

Just a brief report on my first day of classes.  I incorporated three new active learning exercises in the first day’s lesson plan:

1. A ten minute introduction exercise where each student gave their name, their academic track and some opinion, observation or attitude they may have about chemistry.
2. A role play, where pairs each had one minute to express the importance and consequences of a particular lab safety issue.
3. A ten minute scavenger hunt, where teams of four had to seek out the answers to safety questions related to the lab.

These three activities were a big success in my opinion. They enhanced learning and helped break up and add variety and excitement to the otherwise long (nearly three hour) session.  Just wanted to let you know that the material we learned is already yielding good dividends!