Teaching without Lecturing Jacob McLaughlin, Kevin Jiang, Brian Introduction Asking Good Questions Conclusion Building Class Culture Managing Your Space Works Cited Active Learning is a teaching philosophy that relies on asking students guiding questions. This method leads to a higher level of understanding for students. Students in Active Learning environments have lower failure rates and higher average exam scores. Despite the benefits of Active Learning, many professors still prefer traditional lectures. Active Learning presents many challenges to interested professors. These challenges can make implementing Active Learning intimidating, but with the appropriate mindset, and preparation, successfully implemented. Weiman, Carl. “Large Scale Comparison of Science Teaching Methods”. Stanford University. June 10 th, April 2 nd, 2015 "Active Learning." University of Minnesota Duluth. UMN College of Liberal Arts, Web. 02 Apr Komori, Masashi, and Chica Nagaoka. "The Relationship Between Seating Locations and Instructor-Student Entrainment in a Classroom." Kansei Engineering International Journal 11.4 (2012): Kansei Engineering International Journal, 13 Sept Web. April 2 nd 2015 Wang Haohao, and Lisa Posey. “An Inquiry-Based Linear Algebra Class”. Southeast Missouri State University. US-China Education Review. April April 2nd 2015 Mu Xiaoyong. “Learning to teach inquiry-based science”. PhysicsToday. September Web. April 2nd 2014 Bloom’s taxonomy. Syracuse University, Whitman school of management. We April 6 th, 2015 Our considerations help professors avoid potential pitfalls that could lead to the failure of an Active Learning classroom. Professors who consider these points can be sure that they have good resources, in the form of powerful questions and a well-prepared space, to successfully create an Active Learning system. Additionally, the professors can have a solid foundation for creating a positive classroom culture, where students participate in answering challenging questions. The challenges associated with successful implementation of Active Learning are complex and varied. Interested individuals will need to address these issues as they arise, so even with this preparation the Active Learning environment is not risk free. This is a superior system to traditional lectures, but it is difficult. The difficulty must be respected. However, it is our hope that our input, the experiences of other professors, individual ingenuity, and instructor collaboration will be sufficient to address the risks. Students come into college courses expecting to be lectured. Therefore, asking questions and expecting their input to progress the class conflicts with their perspective. Therefore, the instructor must break down the students’ expectations and replace them. Luckily, there are methods for replacing these expectations. First, students should be engaged by questions from the beginning of the course so they can understand the instructor’s philosophy. Next, instructors can encourage students to collaborate and discuss problems together, thus forming groups similar to those used by scientists. Additionally, one should avoid giving answers, but rather encourage students to do their own derivations and be confident in them. The floor layout of a room plays a very important part student engagement. Active learning relies on high student engagement. When implementing active learning, it is important to focus attention to regions which are worse for student engagement. Studies have shown that seats on aisles, seats that are close to the center of the hall, and seats near the front of the hall engage students more than other regions. The best regions to focus attention to during a lecture would therefore be areas that are far from the center, front or aisles. A good question should be used not only as a gauge for a student’s understanding of a topic, but also help shape the student’s understanding. A good question leads but does not show. By asking proper questions, ideas can be easily be connected and concepts understood not memorized. By helping students learn rather than letting the students connect the dots, more can be achieved during lecture than traditional methods would provide.