Part 1: The Why

Questions and discussion

Please get into groups of 3--4 and make sure everyone in the group knows each other.

For each of the questions, think about the question and possible answers; discuss your answers in the group, and then we'll share responses with the whole group.

A Lenoir-Rhyne University graduate should be __________.

How much content from your classes do you reasonably expect the average student to remember 5 years from now?

How does a person learn new things?

Observations

"The center"

Who is constructing the knowledge?

Whose needs, interests, and aspirations are being addressed?

Which way does the arrow point?

Choices for the center

Nothing

The instructor

The students

Some evidence for student-centered instruction from the STEM world

Students in "interactive engagement" sections of intro physics show 2 standard deviation improvement in learning gains over students in standard lecture courses (Hake, 1998)

Large-scale study of Inquiry-Based Learning in mathematics showed statistically significant gains across a variety of learning measures (Laursen et al., 2011)

Several studies on peer instruction indicate signficant improvements in conceptual mastery, problem solving, gender gap (Crouch and Mazur, 2001)

Some reasons for student-centered instruction without evidence

The human ability to learn

The dignity of the person

The need for relationships

A modest goal: The client-consultant model

Part 2a: The How -- Some Ideas

The inverted/flipped classroom

Flipped Learning is a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter.

http://www.flippedlearning.org/definition

The Inverted Classroom Wiki: https://invertedclassroom.wikispaces.com/

Flipped learning in mathematics

Prior to class: Structured reading/viewing activities on new concepts -- play, and ask/answer questions

Arrival at class: Deal with questions that cropped up

During class: Application, analysis, creativity problems

Peer instruction

Other big ideas

Team Based Learning: 12-minute video with examples from law, social sciences, and others: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ctl/largeclasses/#tbl

POGIL: Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (https://pogil.org/)

Service learning

Simple things

Pre-class question gathering (like this)

Student mini-presentations

Think/pair/share

Exit cards

Poster presentations

Part 2b: The How -- Case Studies

Here are some scenarios of instruction. For each one, think about the situation and how instruction might be made more student-centered; discuss your ideas in the group, and then we'll share responses with the whole group.

The interactive lecture that wasn't

Prof. A teaches a lecture course that is one of the largest on campus. In an effort to get students more involved in the lecture, Prof. A splits each 50-minute lecture up into three 10-minute segments followed by a question, asked by Prof. A to the whole class, with 5 minutes of time for Q&A. This is what Prof. A understands to be "interactive lecture". However, students rarely respond to the questions; the students who do respond tend to be the same ones all the time, and not always with intelligent answers. The majority of the students don't interact, and tune out when the question time comes.

Drinking from the fire hose

Prof. B teaches a course that contains a massive amount of material to cover, and it's a prerequisite course for a number of other courses in the major. Prof. B would like to get students more involved in the class meetings, but with the amount of material to cover and with the high stakes of not covering it all, Prof. B is at a loss -- it seems like straight lecture is the only thing that works.

The interactive lecture that wasn't

Prof. C teaches a course, and Prof. C has made a real effort to include group work in the class meetings. Prof. C occasionally breaks from lecture and gives problems pertaining to the course material to students, puts the students in groups, and asks them to work out the problems. The problem is that students don't usually engage with the process. Many of them have their laptops, tablets, and smartphones with them and "use" the group work time to surf the internet or text. Few groups seem to really put forth an effort. Prof. C could go back to lecturing but would rather see the group work succeed.