Active learning class achieves higher student engagement

By Kathy Hovis, Cornell Chronicle

These activities and the small groups, which stay the same all semester, lead to greater classroom confidence and learning outcomes, according to Ballen’s assessments, which compare students from new active learning classes with students who took the class the year before, when it was being taught in a traditional way. All students reported a heightened sense of inclusion in the classroom and higher confidence in discussing the topics they learned, said Kelly Zamudio, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, one of the faculty members teaching the class. “You could watch the in-class groups go from forming to storming to norming to performing,” Zamudio said of the traditional group dynamics model put forth by psychologist Bruce Tuckman. “You can tell that they are teaching and learning from each other, and many of them tell us they have become close friends.”

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/07/active-learning-class-achieves-higher-student-engagement

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from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=16267