Svinicki, M., & McKeachie, W. J. (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Another great chapter in the Svinicki & McKeachie text, chapter 14, is about active learning, specifically group-based learning. This book is so practical and useful. I want to read this aloud to all my interns. No, I want to get into groups and read this together, stopping to discuss, write, co-teach, buddy blog and collaborate. “The task of the successful student in peer learning is to question, explain, express opinions, admit confusion, and reveal misconceptions” (pg. 194). This chapter starts off with the value of active learning, reasoning supported by research. It then talks about peer learning, why it works, types of peer learning, issues in designing group work, and suggestions for effectiveness. These are tips which can be implemented in any setting, but are designed for educators teaching at the university or college level. I agree with everything contained in this text. It feels like synchronicity that this is our reading this week, as I’ve been talking a great deal about this concept lately. Basically, we learn best by teaching others. If you can teach something, then you really understand it. Teaching something, and preparing to teach it, can help you master it. This includes motivation and drive. It increases the student’s likelihood of attending class if they know others are relying on them to do their part. I’ve seen this first hand with my students. When they know their group is presenting, such as a Morning Meeting, they are sure to attend, even if there are obstacles which normally would have kept them away, such as illness, lack of childcare, or car trouble. Svinicki & McKeachie add, “peer learning and teaching is extremely effective for a wide range of goals, content, and students of different levels and personalities”, citing the work of Johnson et al., 1981. Another personal connection I made during the reading was the concept of the “illusion of understanding.” My daughter was in tears last week describing her frustration with her high school pre-calculus class. She said she felt she understood the material in class, but when she got home and attempted her homework she was lost, realizing she didn’t have a true grasp of the material. “We feel like we understand something just because we’ve seen it or heard it or read it before. It takes the attempt to apply the information to prove to use that we don’t understand it yet.” (pg. 192) Active learning strategies could eliminate this problem. I use the concept of learning pairs or learning cells in the classes I teach. For example, when students are assigned to read different chapters, I pair them up and have them teach one another. This seems to be effective and now I see it aligns with research on effective teaching and learning practices. The part I would add, based on the reading, is to have students prepare their partner questions ahead of time. I’ve certainly used the jigsaw method many times, and find it successful. The idea of asynchronous online work is also one I’m familiar with and have used for online classes. For example, our summer arts integration class had students posting to Wikis to create a complete descriptor of their chosen art form. Students worked on this at whatever time was convenient for them (within the weekly time frame) and still were able to collaborate and actively participate together. I notice that my professor in Supervised Teaching utilizes many of the strategies described here. For example, she chooses groups that are diverse, so each participant brings a unique perspective or background to the table. For example, when assigning partners, she would pair an early childhood educator with an elementary educator. Similarly, she would pair a student from the United States with an international student. This allowed the participants to gain knowledge they would not normally have been able to access. I enjoy seeing first-hand how the theories of our text are implemented in real time.
5 Comments
Joyce
9/25/2015 08:18:37 am
Hi Denise, I like the big ideas you pulled out from the reading [The shortest weekly reading so far :)]. Your concluding paragraph was so true. Our professor practice a lot of the strategies suggested in the book especially giving student second chance to improve on an assigned task. Sometime when I am reading I picture her in class and makes the content so real to me.
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Denise Donahue
9/25/2015 12:40:52 pm
Joyce, Thank you for the feedback. As usual, you and I are thinking alike! I appreciate your thoughts.
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9/26/2015 02:25:25 pm
Thanks for recognizing some of the method to my madness. :) It was interesting to think about how your students are motivated differently in their preparedness for class when they are teaching, like in Morning Meeting. Active learning requires the student to be vested. I tend to lean towards our work together as being focused on the application of learning. I intentionally have students write blogs to get a sense of their understanding of the content through reading. Writing the blog is a second step in processing content as it requires the student not only to tell someone else what they learned in the summary, but also to make a connection (in essence apply their knowledge) to their practice (it's the meaning-making component). Then I read those reflections, using what I glean from others' understandings to make adjustments to my lesson based upon students' understanding or misconceptions. I try to reserve in class learning to be as active as possible requiring students to engage with content to deepen their understanding.
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denise donahue
9/27/2015 10:58:56 am
When lecturing, the audience is typically considered the learner, but in relation to this article, the one who prepare the lecture may have learned more. I already do a great deal of peer to peer teaching in my classes, but will brainstorm ways to take that even further. The students seem to want the lecture/PowerPoint format, but I think because passive learning is "easier", yet not as effective.
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9/28/2015 07:02:40 am
Yes, I agree. It is also possible that interns want lecture because they are used to it. They have learned how to adapt to that pedagogy and using other pedagogical strategies may create dissonance for them.
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