Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education1 use active learning

Engineering Engineering Education Best Practices II Brian Hoyt & Timothy Raymond

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education3 Best Practices--Outcomes Participants will be able to:  Identify several “best practices” in engineering education. (write good objectives, teach through Kolb cycle)  Apply learning style theory in the design of course material. (applied Kolb to learning outcomes)  Define the differences between active, collaborative, cooperative and problem based learning.  Apply “best practices” in the design of their courses.

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education4 The Active Learning Continuum Active Learning Problem- Based Learning Make the lecture active Problems Drive the Course Instructor Centered Student Centered Collaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Informal Group Activities Structured Team Activities

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education5 Best Practices OutcomesLearning Style Theory Active Learning Collaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Problem-Based Learning

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education6 Active Learning  Any learning activity that engages students in doing something other than listening to lectures and taking notes. These activities may involve students interacting with each other, writing, reading or reflecting individually.

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education7 Goals of Active Learning  Greater (and deeper) learning  Knowledge is constructed, discovered, transferred and extended by students  Learning is a social enterprise in which students need to interact with the instructor and classmates  Keep things interesting (pace change)

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education8 Active Learning Activity  Jot down a list of 5 ways you could add active components to your lectures (Think)  Turn to your neighbor and share your list (Pair)  Share with the large group (Share)

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education9 Making Lectures Active  Change activities at least every 20 minutes  Think-Pair-Share  1-Minute Paper  Brainstorm  Cooperative Note- Taking Pairs  Start a Problem  Work out next step  Others…

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education10 Possible Problems?  Identify the person who traveled the farthest to get to Bucknell.  That person will be Note-Taker  Brainstorm a list of any possible problems you might think will occur when you try to incorporate active learning into your lectures. (3 minutes)

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education11 Best Practices OutcomesLearning Style Theory Active Learning Collaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Problem-Based Learning

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education12 Collaborative Learning  Students interact with one another as they learn and apply course material  Focus on student’s exploration of course material not on instructor’s presentations of it  Typified by “group” work—students work together, generally rewarded and evaluated as individuals not as group members  Interactions are generally unstructured

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education13 Best Practices OutcomesLearning Style Theory Active LearningCollaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Problem-Based Learning

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education14 Cooperative Learning  “The most operationally well-defined and procedurally-structured form of collaboration among students … [and it] has been the most researched and empirically well-documented form of collaborative learning in terms of its positive impact on multiple outcome measures” --Cueso 1992

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education15 Cooperative Learning  CL has a rich history of theory, research and practice  The research on CL has a validity and generalizability rarely found in the education literature  CL affects many different instructional outcomes simultaneously  Quite a bit is known about the essential components that make it work  CL creates learning opportunities that do not exist when students work competitively or individually

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education16 Cooperative Learning -The Structure (5 Tenets) 1. Positive Interdependence 2. Individual Accountability 3. Face-to-Face Interaction 4. Appropriate Use of Interpersonal Skills 5. Regular Self-Assessment of Group Functioning

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education17 Cooperative Learning  Is NOT  Students sitting around a table studying  Group projects with 1 or 2 students doing all the work  Has Three Levels (Felder, 2004)  Informal - uses short-term ad-hoc groups  Formal - use long-term structured teams  Cooperative Base Groups – provide mutual academic and personal support for years (advising)

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education18 Informal Cooperative Learning Strategies Exercise (Jigsaw)  Break into your shape groups  Become an expert on a tenet  Positive Interdependence (Circles with Prince in Lobby)  Individual Accountability (Squares with Mastascusa Next Door)  Face-to-Face Interaction  Appropriate Use of Interpersonal Skills (Stars with Hanyak in Back)  Regular Self-Assessment of Group Functioning  (15 minutes) (TRIANGLES – YOU CHOOSE TENET)  Return to your color groups  Make them experts on your tenet  (10 minutes)

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education19 Teams  Instructors should form them  Aim for mixed ability & common availability  Early in curriculum - don’t have at-risk populations (e.g. women in engineering) be outnumbered  Teams of 3-4 work best  Students need structured instruction on how to function in teams  Giving and receiving feedback  Decision making  Conflict resolution  Grade should reflect both team and individual performance

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education20 Teams The faculty role changes:  Spend an increasing amount of time developing learning situations  Spend an increasing amount of time coaching the teams  Less time lecturing

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education21 Best Practices OutcomesLearning Style Theory Active LearningCollaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Problem-Based Learning

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education22 Problem-Based Learning  Uses a problem situation to drive the learning activities on a need-to-know basis  Working in teams, students figure out what they need to know, determine how to acquire the needed knowledge, apply the knowledge to solve the problem and assess the solution and the process

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education23 PBL—Good Problems are the Key  Motivate 1. Engage students’ interest and motivate them to probe for deeper understanding of the concepts being introduced 2. Relate the subject to the real world

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education24 PBL—Good Problems are the Key  Require Decisions 1.Require students to make decisions or judgments based on facts, logic or rationalization from principles being learned 2.Require students to define what assumptions are needed 3.Require students to define what information is relevant 4.Require students to define steps/procedures to solve them

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education25 PBL—Good Problems are the Key  Require Cooperation 1. Require positive mutual interdependence 2. Not possible by divide and conquer strategies 3. Appropriate complexity and length

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education26 PBL—Good Problems are the Key  Encourage Interaction 1. Opened ended (options about path) 2. Not limited to one correct answer 3. Connected to previously learned knowledge 4. Involves a controversial issue or decision

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education27 PBL—Good Problems are the Key  Achieve Objectives 1. Incorporate content objectives 2. Connect previous knowledge to new concepts 3. Connect new knowledge to concepts in other courses 4. Connect new knowledge to concepts in other disciplines

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education28 PBL—Completes the Transition in Faculty Role

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education29 The Active Learning Continuum Active Learning Problem- Based Learning Make the lecture active Problems Drive the Course Instructor Centered Student Centered Collaborative Learning Cooperative Learning Informal Group Activities Structured Team Activities

Best Practices IIEngineering Engineering Education30 Best Practices--Outcomes Participants will be able to:  Identify several “best practices” in engineering education. (objectives, use Kolb cycle, active, cooperative, collaborative, PBL)  Apply learning style theory in the design of course material. (applied Kolb to learning outcomes – teach thru cycle to all learners)  Define the differences between active, collaborative, cooperative and problem based learning. (√)  Apply “best practices” in the design of their courses. (remains to be done)