Resources:
How do I help students engage productively in active learning classrooms? by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder, PhysPort.
Examples of Active Learning Classrooms (short videos and resources), Science Education Initiative (SEI) Videos
Tips from faculty:
How do you introduce active learning and the LAs on the first week?
“I show students the data. Before I had my own data, I showed students the graph from Freeman’s Paper (PNAS, 2014). Now, I show them the passing rates of the active sections compared to the lecture section.
I also try to relate what we do in class to their future professional life. I ask them: what are you more likely to do in your future job? Listen to someone talk for hours and then answer questions about what they said or, work with a group of people to solve a problem using the information you have learned elsewhere”. Faculty, Biology Course.
“I have all my LAs introduce themselves. Tell their names, how many years that have been an LA, what helped them be successful in my course, and how they will help the students to be successful. I also show them a little of my data to convince them that the system works”. Faculty, upper division biology course.
“I don’t know if I have any super-secret tricks, but one thing I do during the first week is to establish the classroom culture right away (e.g. expectations of student engagement, etc.) Primarily, I accomplish this by having students do the type of activity that they will be doing throughout the semester. Even though there hasn’t been any content yet, I will have students do an ice-breaker-type of activity and go through the motions of a group activity and circle discussion. Usually, the ice-breaker topic is something like, what do we do in a board meeting? what is a good whiteboard? or in the second semester of physics especially, how can you be successful in this course?.
Also, I try to be very explicit about all this and say a couple of times that this class is different so that students don’t think they will get lectured at. I make sure to hang around the first week and chit-chat with students who might be anxious/confused about what is happening. I introduce LAs in the first five minutes as former physics stars who are back to help, and they will be running board meetings in the first class anyway, so there’s not much mystery about them. Faculty, Introductory Physics Course