On Sept. 19, join us for a workshop from 12-1:30 p.m.that will explore teaching methods that promote active learning specific to your discipline. Don’t forget to bring your course outline!

Student engagement, a key to successful undergraduate education, can be achieved through encouraging active learning, which has long been considered a principle of good practice in undergraduate education (, 1987). Central to active learning is the belief that students are not mere receptacles that teachers fill with information, but active participants, collaborators, and co-creators in the learning process. Active learning is founded on the idea that students must actively engage with new content and skills in order to internalize and make sense of it in a meaningful and lasting way.

The question with which faculty, staff and administrators in post-secondary education must grapple is how to create educational experiences that not only promote, but foster active engagement? How do we convey the importance and necessity of rejecting passive models of learning in favour of more active ones? What people, places and practices can be used to actively engage students in the education process? How do we set students up for success both in and beyond the classroom? What roles do students, staff, teachers and administrators play in student engagement?

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s , in collaboration with , invites proposals for posters, presentations (20 minutes), and workshops (1 hour) that grapple with or offer answers to the questions above. We are particularly interested in proposals that center around the themes of student engagement, experiential learning, active learning spaces, or how active engagement promotes the development of skills for future careers. We also invite proposals from students, staff, faculty and administrators, with a particular interest in proposals that involve collaborations among these groups.

Proposals can be theoretical or practical in nature. They may represent exploratory investigations, practice-based research, and/or practical demonstrations of active learning.

.

The modern classroom is a place where, even today, many of us sit still, sit quiet and learn. Ostensibly. For the past thousand years (or more), learning has happened in rooms with rows of tables and chairs all facing the front to listen to someone who will profess on their area of expertise. It is this very idea of sedentary consumption of learning that has made the phrase “active learning” so jazzy and appealing to those of us working toward improving pedagogy and the learning experience. Perhaps, however, there might be a less evocative term? Something that doesn’t suggest that learning outside of the so-called “active learning” bubble is somehow not actively participating in the learning experience. These semantics are food for thought, but alas, what’s in a name?

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University is among the academic leaders aspiring toward creating more innovative teaching practices and more engaging learning environments. A very good example of the kinds of spaces that reflect where contemporary classrooms are going can be found in the . Boasting contemporary aesthetics and state-of-the-art technology, the Discovery Centre is a study space in which the sharing of ideas and collaboration among students in encouraged by design.

Committed members of the Teaching and Learning Services team want to extend this experience to the classroom, making active learning a more accessible practice for our instructors. The Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) that will be rolled out on campus will contain mobile furniture that accommodates 25-40 students, and can be configured to form groups of five to six at huddle tables. But still, I worry that by calling them ‘active learning’ classrooms, I will alienate users of all other rooms. So, here is my question for the month: What would YOU call these spaces? Is “active learning” good enough or should we call them something else? Smart rooms? But then, rooms are not smart! Electronic rooms? But in what way? Something else perhaps?

Please email me at john.strickland@carleton.ca with your thoughts. If one of your terms gets adopted, the person making the suggestion will win a cake to serve up to a dozen people. Yes! This is your chance to be the office hero by getting cake for everyone! All you need to do is find a name that reflects what these rooms do, and doesn’t alienate everyone else!

We have all been taught by excellent teachers, as well as some who are…less excellent. Do you ever wonder how they get that way?

As a teacher you are in a position to facilitate learning.  There are several ways in which to share knowledge in instructor-led classroom settings.  At ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, we are fortunate enough to have the Educational Development Centre (EDC) to help TAs, Contract Instructors and Professors improve their teaching.  Through the EDC we can take workshops and write articles on pedagogy; these are both comfortable formats for academics. Relatively new to ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ is the Peer Feedback process for teachers.  Peer feedback provides an opportunity to identify elements you are doing well, as well as some issues that can benefit from additional attention. Some people may be ambivalent or even nervous about having a peer observe their teaching as the process takes us out of our comfort zone.  However, as with the EDC sessions and reflection papers, a supportive peer observer can help you improve your teaching without making you feel threatened or inadequate.

After being observed by four peers at the same time, Alex Grammatikos (now a second year PhD student in the Department of English) said that “you’re never close to perfect so it’s better to have someone help you and you can learn from your colleagues.”  When asked how it felt to be observed and receive feedback, Alex said that, “if anything it is a form of support to have my fellow grad students watching me.  I felt like my friends were there.  I didn’t think about [all of] you reviewing me; I just wanted to go have fun.”

Those of us getting our Teaching Skills Certificate from the EDC spend a lot of time thinking and learning about pedagogy. The Peer Feedback process is a chance to put those lessons into practice and get real feedback.  We may journal on our experiences but that is still our own reflection.  A peer will tell you how you perform in an objective and constructive way.

It is ironic that in academia we aggressively seek out peers to review our articles and yet shy away from peer reviews of our teaching.  In the article, “Why Are Chemists and Other Scientists Afraid of the Peer Review of Teaching?” Charles Atwood, Pat Hutchings, and James Taylor suggest that “it is time to treat teaching with the same intellectual rigor that we afford […] research, and providing that intellectual rigor is one of the purposes of the peer-review project” (239).  In one example, the authors describe “John Wright, a chemist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, [who] used peer review to assess the effectiveness of innovations in his teaching” (242).  As a result of his findings, he “transformed his class […] from teacher-centered delivery to student-centered learning” (242).  Ultimately this type of teaching encourages students to engage more fully in their own learning, and moves their classes away from the traditional approach of sermonizing and regurgitation.  As institutions move to more learner-centered, active-learning classrooms, changes in pedagogical style will be more important. Peer Feedback can help to facilitate this process.

When you open your teaching up to observation and feedback, you increase your opportunities to hone your pedagogical skills.  This in turn results in more engaged and satisfied students.  You are more apt to connect with them if you are a confident teacher who is practiced in the delivery of their material; peer feedback can help you get there. At the very least, peer feedback may teach you not to jingle pocket change as you talk, and not to insert those ubiquitous “ums” for emphasis or effect.  Also, for those of us going on to have teaching jobs, several teaching institutions require a mock or practice teach before hiring a new teacher.  Do you really want your first peer review of your teaching to be in a job interview setting?

To arrange for a class observation, ask someone that you know, trust, and respect to observe you and assess your teaching or .  There are four simple steps: Sign up (through your TA Mentor or EDC), complete a Pre-Feedback Assessment, teach as you normally would and then meet with your peer for thirty minutes following the observation. A week later you’ll receive written feedback that you can use in TA Award submissions, Teaching Dossiers or you CV.  The process is straightforward and very rewarding.  I liked being observed so much that I became an observer, myself.  I highly recommend the peer feedback process.

Works Cited

• Atwood, Charles, and Pat Hutchings, and James Taylor.  “Why Are Chemists and Other Scientists Afraid of the Peer Review of Teaching?” Journal of Chemical Education.  2000 vol:77 iss:2  p239-243.
• Grammatikos, Alexander.  Personal interview. 25 March 2012.