Active Learning Resources

Student Engagement

What does it mean to teach well? Accomplished biologist, Bill Wood, explains that this means shifting away from focusing on "What I do as an instructor to what students will do to learn.

The types of teaching these instructors are doing are often described as "active learning" because, at certain points during class, the instructor stops talking and students engage in a task that helps them make progress toward achieving a learning objective. 

Why do we need to make use of active learning strategies instead of simply lecturing? Here from scientists across the country reflecting on teaching and learning, and why they moved away from lecturing to using active learning strategies:

• The Problem with Traditional Undergraduate Education
• Eric Mazur's Confession of a Converted Lecturer
   

How To Get Started

It is often difficult for instructors to envision entirely revamping their courses to use active learning, but small changes can make a big difference. Here are some places to start:

• Ask questions and give students time to think and discuss their ideas with a neighbor before responding (also known as "think-pair-share"). At a natural stopping point in your lecture, ask a challenging question that requires students to apply what you have just lectured about. Give students one minute to think about their responses, then another minute or two to discuss their responses with a neighbor, and then call for volunteers to answer. This will help ensure everyone has time to think through the question, and to articulate and get feedback on their responses in a low-stakes way before the high-stakes experience of talking in front of the whole class (including the instructor!). Walk around the class to see whether students are on track with their thinking as they discuss with their neighbors. 
• When you ask a question, wait until you have at least four students raising their hands before you call on anyone. This will help ensure everyone has time to think through and respond to the question, not just the first two to three students who always answer the questions you pose. An even better strategy for encouraging all students to think about and respond to your questions is to cold call - randomly select students from the class roster to respond to a question. This can be a scary experience for students and can backfire if the student happens to be absent for a legitimate reason. Having a backup plan can help reduce anxiety, such as allowing students to pass and instead be responsible for answering the next question, giving students two to three passes during the semester (an absence counts as a pass), or allowing students to ask a friend for help. 
• Diagnose what students know and teach accordingly. Ask your students a question about the material you are planning to teach BEFORE you begin to teach it. This can happen before class after they have completed a reading, or during class before you begin new material. If students already know the material, you can use the time to teach something they don't know or understand. 
   

See It In Action

There is no single, right way to teach actively, just like there is no single, right way to design an experiment or solve a complex problem. Here are just a few examples of what an active learning classroom can look like:

• iBiology Scientific Teaching Series: Addressing the Problem - Active Learning
• Science Education Initiative - Evidence-based Science Education in Action 
• Inside Active Learning Classrooms at the University of Minnesota 
• Active Learning Classrooms at McGill University
   

For more ideas about how to actively engage students in learning, see:

• Structure Matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement
• We must teach more effectively: Here are four ways to get started
• The Instructor Guidance website at the Carl Weiman Science Education Initiative at University of British Columbia 

To assess your own use of active learning strategies, which are also called research-based or evidence-based teaching strategies, see:

• The Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) was developed by Weiman and Gilbert (2014)
   

Peer Instruction

Seminal research from Vygotsky, Bandura, and other learning scientists has demonstrated that learners change their thinking as a result of direct interaction with others. One way to achieve this is through peer instruction, when students work to teach each other and learn in the process of doing so. Studies of peer instruction show that:

• Students can better answer a similar question after talking aloud and with their peers.
• Peer instruction coupled with instructor explanation works better than either one alone.
• Students like peer instruction. The more students enjoy class, the more likely they will attend, participate, and dedicate time outside of class to studying.
• Peer instruction classes outperform traditional lectures on a common test.
   

How Peer Instruction Works

Here is one way to implement peer instruction:

1. Pose a challenging problem or question to students - one that is worthy of discussion (~1 minute)
2. Ask students to work independently to solve the problem or answer the question. Students' responses can be collected using a classroom response system (i.e., clickers), if desired. (1-3 minutes)
3. Encourage students to compare and discuss their solutions with neighbors. Wander around the classroom to listen in on student discussions - are they on track? What are the points of confusion? How much time to spend on peer discussion depends on how many students answered correctly. 
   • If most answer correctly, the discussion can be brief. (1-2 minutes) 
   • If students are split, encourage students to attempt to convince their neighbors as they discuss (2-5 minutes).
   • If most answer incorrectly, it may be necessary to backtrack and reteach the key ideas being addressed in the question or problem.
4. Provide students an opportunity to re-answer the question.
5. Follow the revote with a whole class discussion. 

When discussing as a whole class, it can be helpful to consider both accurate and inaccurate responses. For example, point out an incorrect response and ask the class why someone might select the response. This avoids calling out students who answered incorrectly, while addressing the misunderstanding head on. As much as possible, ask students to explain the reasoning behind the responses, rather than doing it for them. 
 

See Peer Instruction In Action

Here are several videos on how and why to implement peer instruction, including peer instruction using response systems (i.e., clickers): 

• How to use clickers effectively 
• CIRTL MOOC on Introduction to Evidence-based Teaching three examples of peer instruction
• Peer instruction 
• Peer instruction for active learning 

For more on peer instruction, see:

• Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions 
• Combining peer discussion with instructor explanation increases student learning from in-class concept questions 
• Peer Instruction: A user's manual

Educational Technology

Classroom Response Systems

This info has been adapted from materials developed by Dr. Stephanie Chasteen (CU Boulder).

How many times have you given a lecture and found that students hadn't followed you?

Can you rely on students to ask questions if they don't understand something?

Can you rely on students to know if they don't understand something?

Using classroom response systems, or clickers, helps address all of these issues. The point is not really the use of the technology, but rather the use of questioning and peer instruction to help students learn. Clickers offer several advantages over other questioning strategies. For example, clickers:

• Are anonymous to the class (but not the instructor), so students will be more willing to take a risk and respond to a question that they wouldn't have responded to in a whole class discussion
• Help ensure equitable participation - everyone has a voice, not just the few students who are comfortable speaking out regularly during class
• Enforce wait time so that everyone has time to think about the question and formulate a response
   

How Classroom Response Systems Work

Clicker questions can be used:

1. BEFORE instruction: To get students motivated about a subject, encourage students to make a prediction, provoke student thinking, or assess students' prior knowledge
2. DURING instruction: To check students' knowledge, require students to apply or practice what they are learning, or elicit student misconceptions
3. AFTER instruction: To help students relate what they have learned to a bigger picture, provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they have learned, review or recap material, or poll students about a learning experience.
    

To implement clicker questioning:

1. Pose a challenging problem or question to students - one that is worthy of discussion (~1 minute)
2. Ask students to work independently to solve the problem or answer the question. (1-3 minutes)
3. Encourage students to compare and discuss their solutions with neighbors. Wander around the classroom to listen in on student discussions - are they on track? What are the points of confusion? How much time to spend on peer discussion depends on how many students answered correctly. 
4. If most answer correctly, the discussion can be brief. (1-2 minutes) 
5. If students are split, encourage students to attempt to convince their neighbors as they discuss (2-5 minutes). 
6. If most answer incorrectly, it may be necessary to backtrack and reteach the key ideas being addressed in the question or problem. 
7. Provide students an opportunity to re-answer the question. 
8. Follow the revote with a whole class discussion. 
    

Writing Clicker Questions

Good clicker questions:

• Move away from simple quizzes
• Prompt discussion
• Emphasize reasoning or process
• Have tempting response options
• Achieve a variety of instructional goals
• Vary in their cognitive depth
• Don't just assess factual recall

For ideas on what would make good clicker questions for your course:

• Talk with instructors who have taught the course in the past
• Talk with your students one-on-one before or after class or during office hours 
• Use student responses to open-ended questions that you have included on homeworks or exams
• Ask your students to come up with answers that will be used as response options 
• Use student misconceptions that have been documented in learning research
   

Facilitating Clicker Discussions

The best questions won't ensure that clickers "work" in your class - how you facilitate clicker questioning matters. Good facilitation requires buying into questioning and peer instruction. Faculty who buy in make questions an integral part of the lecture and operate with the idea that students learn by considering a question and engaging in discussion. For students to meaningfully engage with clicker questions and discussion, they need to know that the instructor values their ideas and that it is safe to share their thinking, even if it is wrong. Strategies that demonstrate buy-in and create a safe space for discussion include:

• Asking challenging, meaningful questions several times during class in ways that connect directly with what is happening in class at that moment 
• Allowing enough time for discussion
• Circulating the classroom to listen in on students' discussion and model how you might go about thinking through the question (without telling the right answer!)
• Focusing on reasoning during the wrap-up, including asking students to explain why wrong answers are wrong, why one might think a wrong answer is right, and why the right answer is right 
• Establishing a culture of respect - getting questions wrong is part of the learning process
   

Technology Options

There are several systems that can be used for classroom response:

• UT Instapoll is a free system integrated within Canvas which students can use on any wifi-enabled device
• iClickers and the associated REEF Polling, which allows for use of any device with a browser or that can download an app. iClicker is currently the only centrally supported classroom response system at UT Austin.
• TopHat, which allows students to use any wifi-enabled or texting device 
• Squarecap, which allows students to use any wifi-enabled device
• Simple colored paper can also be used as a low tech alternative

All of these systems are free to instructors and free or low-cost to students.

For more guidance on the effective use of classroom response systems, including links to clicker question banks, see:

• Clicker Resources at the University of British Columbia
• Using Clickers in the Classroom from Russell James at the University of Georgia