1. ENGAGING STUDENTS IN LEARNING Conversations about Teaching and Learning Diane Salter Vice Provost Teaching and Learning KPU Dec. 10, 2013

2. What was your best learning experience????

3. What are these people doing ? Bligh, 2000; Bonwell & Eison, 1999; Hartley & Davies, 1978. Hello Are you Heartrate

4. Heart Rates in Uninterrupted Lectures Bligh, 2000; Bonwell & Eison, 1999; Hartley & Davies, 1978.

5. Why plan for ‘Active’ Lectures? Problem of Attention span Why plan for ‘Active’ Lectures? Problem of Attention span Psychological constraints on learning: Concentration drops with sustained and unchanging low level activity (such as sitting and listening). To follow lecture content concentrated effort is required. Students attention is typically maintained for ???? __________ minutes. Psychological constraints on learning: Concentration drops with sustained and unchanging low level activity (such as sitting and listening). To follow lecture content concentrated effort is required. Students attention is typically maintained for ???? __________ minutes.

6. 6 Lecture Breaks Increase Students’ Attention Bligh, 2000; McKeachy, 1999.

7. 7 Bligh, D.A. 2000. Factors Affecting Student’s Attention. In: What’s the use of Lectures? San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Publishers, 2000. p.51. Effect of intervention and discussion on attention decline during lecture. McKeachy, W.J. Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theories for College and University Teachers. (10 th Edition). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Discussion methods are superior to lectures in students’ retention of information at the end of the course, transfer of knowledge to new situations, development of problem solving.

8. Comparing Lectures to Discussions (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, review of 17 studies) Lectures = Discussions Learning Low Level Factual Material Discussions > Lecture Retention of Information Transfer of Knowledge to New Situations Motivate students to learn more

9. Challenging assumptions: Biggs and Tang (2007) suggest: Stop thinking about the next lecture that we have to give, and start considering how to create ‘situations for student learning’. (within the class time as well as out of class ) Shift the focus from ‘how do I teach this’ to ‘what should the student to do to ‘learn this’. Stop assuming that all learning takes place within a teacher-directed classroom. Stop thinking about the next lecture that we have to give, and start considering how to create ‘situations for student learning’. (within the class time as well as out of class ) Shift the focus from ‘how do I teach this’ to ‘what should the student to do to ‘learn this’. Stop assuming that all learning takes place within a teacher-directed classroom. Teaching for Quality Learning at University, Third Edition. John Biggs and Catherine Tang Open University Press, New York, 2007.

10. Challenging assumptions: Biggs and Tang (2007) suggest a shift : FromTo Coverage mode Assignment/Task Centred Mode What am I going to teach? What do I want the students to learn? I must cover … They must do… Teaching Tasks Learning Tasks Monologue Dialogue Teach content Engagement with content/class as assess for mastery dialogue/assess for deep learning FromTo Coverage mode Assignment/Task Centred Mode What am I going to teach? What do I want the students to learn? I must cover … They must do… Teaching Tasks Learning Tasks Monologue Dialogue Teach content Engagement with content/class as assess for mastery dialogue/assess for deep learning

11. Typical University Lecture Hall Traditional Didactic Approach Assumption: My job is to talk. Your role is to listen. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU FINISH FIRST!

12. The Old Britannia School House, Ontario Smaller Classes are not immune to the didactic approach!!

16. 16 Strategies to Engage Which have you used? Which might you use? p. 3, 4

17. THANK YOU!