Active Learning In Large Classes Research Articles

Integration of respiratory physiology and clinical reasoning in the early years of a medical curriculum: engaging with students in a large classroom setting.

Medical graduates are expected to apply scientific principles and explain the processes underlying common and important diseases. Evidence shows that integrated medical curricula, which deliver biomedical science within the context of clinical cases, facilitate student learning in preparation for practice. However, research has also shown that the student's perception of their knowledge can be lower in integrated compared to traditional courses. Thus the development of teaching methods to support both integrated learning and build student confidence in clinical reasoning is a priority. In this study, we describe the use of an audience response system to support active learning in large classes. Sessions, delivered by medical faculty from both academic and clinical backgrounds, were designed to build on the knowledge of the respiratory system in both health and disease through the interpretation of clinical cases. Results showed that student engagement was high throughout the session and students strongly agreed that the application of knowledge to real-life cases was a better way to understand clinical reasoning. Qualitative free text comments revealed that students liked the link between theory and practice and the active, integrated method of learning. In summary, this study describes a relatively simple but highly effective way of delivering integrated medical science teaching, in this case respiratory medicine, to improve student confidence in clinical reasoning. This educational approach was applied within the early years of the curriculum in preparation for teaching within a hospital setting, but the format could be applied across many different settings.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The development of teaching methods that support integrated learning and build student confidence is a priority. An audience response system was used to engage early year medical students in large classes in preparation for teaching within a hospital setting. Results showed high levels of student engagement and a greater appreciation for the link between theory and practice. This study describes a simple, active, and integrated method of learning that improves student confidence in clinical reasoning.

Psychrometric charts in color: An example of active learning for chemical engineering students and faculty members

This paper reports the design and scale-up of an active learning exercise centered around color coding of psychrometric charts. The initial version of this exercise was used with small classes of 60 students. When the class size doubled to 120 students, the previously successful exercise failed. The failure was then used as a workshop example for faculty development. Workshop participants successfully identified a number of details of planning and implementation which could be improved, and the revised exercise was once again successful in the classroom. The results are a framework for design of active learning exercises, a number of lessons learned about how to successfully implement active learning in large classes, and a highly polished 2-lecture unit on psychrometric charts, including two animated and worked examples which form part of the paper.

Coordinated Implementation and Evaluation of Flipped Classes and Peer-Led Team Learning in General Chemistry

The research-based pedagogical strategy of flipped classes has been shown to be effective for increasing student achievement and retention in postsecondary chemistry classes. The purpose of flipped classes is to move content delivery (e.g., lecture) outside of the classroom, freeing more face-to-face time for active learning strategies. The opportunity to engage in active learning with students can be a challenge for instructors of large classes (more than 100 students). Furthermore, there has been little discussion in the chemical education literature to provide instructors with detailed descriptions of successful implementations of flipped classes combined with active learning in large classes. To this end, this report provides a comprehensive description and evaluation of a coordinated implementation of flipped classes with peer-led team learning (PLTL) for second-semester general chemistry with class sizes greater than 200 students. This approach is described as “Flipped PLTL”. This report includes de...

Transcending Convention and Space: Strategies for Fostering Active Learning in Large Post-Secondary Classes

In 1970, education theorist Paulo Freire (1970) sharply critiqued dominant pedagogy—or what he called the banking model of education - for stripping students of their agency. In the banking model, he wrote, instructors are empowered as narrating subjects as students who become alienated as passive listening objects. In the decades since, research has repeatedly shown that a banking model of education is ineffective and inefficient. Despite this, there is an increasing trend towards large, lecture-based learning in post-secondary classrooms, fuelled largely by the turn to a neoliberal, corporatized model for higher education. Active learning pedagogy moves away from the banking model of education, toward a model that positions the student as an active participant in his or her own learning and development. While active learning has been shown to be more effective, large class sizes, classroom structures, teaching loads, and diminishing teaching resources can make it difficult for instructors to integrate active learning into large post-secondary lecture-halls. This paper explores the challenge of inspiring active learning in large classes and proposes a number of strategies for integrating active learning in large university lecture halls.

Measures to Achieve Active Learning in Large Classes, Using the Workshop Method in Nursing Education

Measures to Achieve Active Learning in Large Classes, Using the Workshop Method in Nursing Education

Using Classroom Response Technology To Create An Active Learning Environment In Marketing Classes

Classroom response systems (CRS), also called student/audience response systems or clickers, have been used by business instructors, particularly in larger classes, to allow instructors to ask students questions in class and have their responses immediately tabulated and reported electronically. While clickers have typically been used to measure attendance, gauge comprehension and test students, we propose that classroom response systems can also be used to effectively create an active learning environment. Specifically we detail the use of classroom response systems to utilize active learning in large classes (i.e., more than 70 students) through describing five sample CRS exercises in Marketing courses: Sequential Elimination, Why Do You Think That?, Experiential Exercises, What Would You Do?, and Forced Choice. These exercises though, could be adapted for use in other business classes.

Active Learning in Large Classes: Can Small Interventions Produce Greater Results Than Are Statistically Predictable?

Abstract Six online postings and six one-minute papers were added to an introductory first-year class, forming 5 percent of the final grade, but represented significant intervention in class functioning and amount of active learning. Active learning produced results in student performance beyond the percentage of the final grade it constituted.

Active Learning in Large Classes: Can Small Interventions Produce Greater Results Than Are Statistically Predictable?

Six online postings and six one-minute papers were added to an introductory first-year class, forming 5 percent of the final grade, but represented significant intervention in class functioning and amount of active learning. Active learning produced results in student performance beyond the percentage of the final grade it constituted.

Team Learning: A Comprehensive Approach for Harnessing the Power of Small Groups in Higher Education

This paper describes Team Learning, a comprehensive, group-based instructional format that was originally developed to facilitate active learning in large classes, but has subsequently proven to be effective in a wide variety of instructional settings. The primary features of the approach include: 1) permanent and purposefully heterogeneous work groups; 2) grading based on a combination of individual performance, group performance, and peer evaluation; 3) a majority of the class time devoted to small group activities; and 4) a six-step instructional activity sequence that makes it possible to focus the majority of class time on helping students develop the ability to use concepts as opposed to simply learn about them. The author also compares Team Learning to other instructional approaches and discusses the use of group activities as a supplement to lectures.

Student involvement: Active learning in large classes

AbstractThe challenge is to reconcile the recommendations of the experts for involved learning with the reality of passivity that plagues large classes.