Structure The Class Environment To Support Active Learning

Structure The Class Environment To Support Active Learning

The actions of an instructor on the first day of class will set the tone for the rest of the semester. If you have expectations of lively student interactions within a warm, supportive environment, then you must begin to develop that atmosphere in the initial class period. Consider the following: - Engage in activities designed to introduce class members to each other. Ice breakers do two things: 1) they help get students used to speaking in front of the group (public speaking is one of the most common fears that people have); 2) they help students get to know each other, thereby making them feel more comfortable. Perhaps the most useful format is to have students pair off and interview each other. In the two to five minutes allotted to each, students find out salient facts about their partners—where they're from, what their hobbies are, why they're taking the class, etc. If the group is thirty or less, there is sufficient time for individuals to introduce each other to the entire class. If the class is larger, have the students introduce each other in two or more subgroups.

Even very large classes in amphitheaters with fixed seats can use this technique: have students use subgroups of eight. Pairs interview each other outside class and come prepared for introductions at the next meeting. If one of your goals is to

promote writing, the students can be asked to write brief biographies of their partners. Depending upon the subject matter, these introductions can often serve to illustrate themes of the course.

- Provide a detailed syllabus outlining your expectations at the first class meeting.

Research has consistently shown that a principal characteristic of a good teacher is clarity and organization of course material as well as predictability of actions.

Providing clear and consistent expectations to students on the first day helps to establish rapport, for it reduces the inherent power relationship between student and instructor. This is particularly true regarding grades.

Establishing these expectations can be a way to familiarize students with class discussion techniques to be used later in the course. For instance, students could use the Think-Pair-Share (TPS) model to critique the syllabus. Students 1) read the syllabus, hunting for points that need clarification; 2) compare findings with a partner's; and 3) engage in a large class discussion, led by the instructor, designed to ensure that any ambiguity in the syllabus is resolved.

- Provide opportunities for success. If students experience success as early as possible in a course, they become motivated and look forward to further explorations of the material.

Students reflect and write individually, then share their responses in groups of three, and finally engage in a discussion with the whole class. The questions are framed so that everyone could contribute out of their experiences while identifying with the text. In later sessions, students learned to "deepen and systematize" the process of textual exegesis that they had successfully begun during their first class. The implication for every instructor is whether we like it or not, a major question all students have is "How will I be graded?" that students should be exposed to the processes of our disciplines in such a way as to arouse their curiosity.

Systematically promote student participation.

- Use active learning strategies as often as possible. Students need to be helped in overcoming their resistance to active participation. Some reasons why students hesitate to participate in class are: 1) since lecturing is the dominant teaching strategy, students are conditioned to be passive; 2) the fear of speaking in public is common among students; and 3) students are afraid to appear "stupid" in front

of their peers or the instructor. Given these circumstances, students need frequent practice in active learning strategies so that they may become proficient and confident in their use of them. Short, low-risk activities such as discussions built around appropriate editorials or even short summaries of the lecture can be introduced every day. Within a few weeks, active participation by most students becomes the norm.

There is some controversy about whether instructors should force students to participate in discussion by calling on them. Indeed, one study suggests this practice is viewed negatively by students. Personal experience suggests the opposite, however, if a climate of trust has been established and students are allowed to "pass" on answering questions if they so desire. Shy students have often remarked that, once they overcame their initial terror, they appreciated being made part of the group. If you have doubts, at least ensure that those who are hesitant are assigned roles that quietly allow them to participate: note-taking, summarizing, etc.

- Structure the physical class environment. Ask to be assigned to classes and classrooms that are conducive to active learning, if such are available. The ideal situation for interactive learning would be classes of twenty in classrooms with movable chairs so that discussions could take place in groups of any size.

Unfortunately, the physical constraints under which we often work can inhibit interaction among students. It is difficult to develop a warm, supportive atmosphere in an amphitheater with 600 students in fixed seats. There are strategies, however, which can be used in a classroom of any size. As suggested earlier, break the class down into manageable groups: pairs or groups of three can be used in classes of any size. Hold a discussion with a portion of the class while others listen. Ask for their comments later. Ingenuity and flexibility can mitigate many obstacles that stand in your way.

Develop a climate that supports risk taking.

- Role models. Students are more likely to take risks if they see that the instructor is willing to take risks as well. By the way you handle errors and wrong turns, you demonstrate to students that even experts make mistakes. This willingness to demonstrate vulnerability is difficult to develop. Most of us remember when we first began teaching and believed that we had to adopt the role of "authority" in the classroom and were fearful of having our newly-minted professional status challenged by admitting a mistake. Those engaged in active learning, however,

must learn to adopt an additional role, that of facilitator, or better yet, coinvestigator. Students are aware of these roles, even if we have not articulated them to ourselves.

- Ensure that your responses to student participation are supportive. Several confirming verbal responses are: a) Directly acknowledge a student's contribution or feelings. b) When possible, agree with portions or all of a student's contribution. If criticism appears warranted, try deflecting the response to another student for comment. A caveat is necessary. There are times in a discussion when you want to draw out a particular topic until it is fully developed.

Telling a student that his response is correct sometimes shuts down contributions from others. c) Clarify the students' feelings or the content they have presented ("As I understand what you are saying, you believe . . ."). d) Provide encouraging, reassuring statements to students as they work through a difficult problem. This supportive feedback should appear on written work as well. Some instructors even provide a periodic, personalized letter summarizing a student's contributions during the semester.

We suggest using supportive nonverbal behaviors when engaged in class discussion: a) face the speaker; b) make eye contact or focus on the speaker slightly below the eyes; c) lean or bend slightly toward the speaker; d) take notes on those points presented that you should refer to later as a reinforcement of their importance; e) wait three to five seconds after the student stops speaking to show that you are considering what has been said. In addition, be aware of other aspects of your body language. Most importantly, appear relaxed and smile.

- Interactions with students. One of the most important things you can do to develop a warm, supportive atmosphere in the classroom is to learn student names as quickly as possible. Although class size may be a limiting factor, there are strategies that simplify the process. For instance, make a seating chart and review names while students are engaged in active learning activities. Another approach is to hand out assignments while looking closely at names and faces as you do so. The simple act of learning names clearly shows that you are interested in students as individuals.

Similarly, self-disclosure by the professor greatly personalizes the classroom as students become privy to the humanity of the instructor. Students are particularly appreciative of instructors who use personal examples to illustrate the material or to discuss experiences they have had outside class—as long as the stories are

pertinent to the college courses. They also are responsive to such actions as making an open admission when material becomes confusing or interjecting humor where appropriate. Indeed, one of the most powerful tools for establishing student-instructor rapport is the ability to laugh at oneself.

- Use power constructively. Communication research suggests that an instructor has various types of power at his or her disposal in the classroom, if the students "perceive it to exist and accept it." We can list five types of power available to a teacher: a) Coercive Power is based on students' perceptions that they will be punished if they do not conform to a teacher's requests. b) Reward Power is the power based on a student's perception that the teacher can reward him or her for compliance with the instructor's desires. c) Legitimate power is the power assigned by students to the instructor in a classroom as a function of his or her role as a "teacher." d) Referent power stems from a student's relationship with a teacher—the extent of the power depends on how much a student wants to identify with and please the instructor. e) Expert power stems from the student's perception that the teacher is knowledgeable about the discipline.

Communication of power in the classroom has an important effect upon student cognitive and affective learning. The use of coercive power, and to a lesser extent the use of legitimate power, retarded both cognitive and affective learning in students. The use of referent power, and to a lesser extent expert power, enhanced student learning. Students reported significantly more use of coercive power and significantly less use of expert power than did the teachers. Instructors should try to avoid the use of coercive or legitimate power and instead should emphasize the use of referent power by developing positive relationships with students through the strategies discussed in this essay.

Academic controversy in the college classroom.

Every college instructor may wish to remember that (a) conflicts are inevitable and (b) conflicts have many potentially positive outcomes. In most if not all subject areas, no matter what you do, students will disagree with each other and even with the authorities in the field. Intellectual controversy exists when one student's ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible

with those of another, and the two seek to reach an agreement. The goal of controversy is for the individuals involved to reach the best reasoned judgment possible by giving all points of view a fair and complete hearing and viewing the issue from all perspectives.

While the controversy process occurs naturally, it may be considerably enhanced when teachers structure it in academic situations. Structuring controversy in lessons can result in greater motivation to learn, higher achievement, greater retention, more frequent higher-level reasoning, more creative thinking and problem-solving, and more constructive social and cognitive development. There are so many advantages to intellectual conflict in the classroom that it is hard to understand why instructors use it so infrequently. One reason may be that they do not know that they are supposed to create intellectual conflict as part of the educational experience. Another reason may be that they do not know how to do so.

Utilizing the power of conflict to focus students' attention on what is to be learned, generating continuing motivation to learn and inquire, creating a need for improved conceptual frameworks, and generating more creative and higherquality decisions begin with realizing that conflict potentially has many positive outcomes and is essential to learning. Traditionally, many colleges have viewed conflict as being destructive and tried to avoid and suppress it in the classroom.

Instead, faculty must create, seek out, and structure intellectual conflict in order to maximize student learning and motivation. Conflicts can be constructive if managed skillfully. Conflict can lead to integrative problem solving that creates positive outcomes for everyone involved.

Cognitive and Moral Development Constructively managed conflict not only increases achievement and motivation, it also is essential for cognitive and moral growth. A wide variety of developmental psychologists have proposed that conflict is an inherent part of healthy growth.

When individuals cooperate, socio-cognitive conflict occurs and creates cognitive disequilibrium, which leads to a need to verify one's information and reasoning, which results in the development of logic, all of which stimulates perspectivetaking ability and cognitive and moral development. A person's need for logic arises from being confronted with opposing ideas, which leads to doubt and a

desire to verify. Cognitive and moral reasoning advance the more frequently controversy occurs during cooperative endeavors.

Controversy, Effective Decision Making, and Healthy Organizations The need for controversy, and some of the destructive consequences of trying to make decisions without disagreement and intellectual challenge, are found in the examples of decision-making fiascoes documented. Groupthink is the collective striving for unanimity that overrides group members' motivation realistically to appraise alternative courses of action and, thereby, leads to (a) deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment and (b) ignoring external information inconsistent with the favored alternative course of action.

Groupthink leads to concurrence seeking where group members inhibit discussion in order to avoid any disagreement or arguments, emphasize agreement, and avoid realistic appraisal of alternative ideas and courses of action. Quick compromises and censorship of disagreement are characteristic of groups dominated by concurrence seeking.

How to make an organization conflict-positive rather than conflict-negative: (a) documenting the process of controversy (uncertainty results from being challenged by others) (b) identifying the conditions under which controversy results in positive or negative outcomes (in a cooperative context, positive outcomes tend to result while in a competitive context, negative outcomes tend to result).

Poor decisions are often made for a number of reasons. One is that group members quickly decide on a solution based on their dominant response and, therefore, do not think of the proper alternatives or do a poor job of evaluating and choosing among the alternatives being considered. A second is that even when group members identify the proper alternatives, group members often do a poor job of evaluating and choosing among the alternatives. Controversy corrects for these two flaws in decision making. In addition, they conclude that controversy results in more creative solutions and more member satisfaction compared to group decision making without controversy. Controversy encourages group members to dig into a problem, raise issues, and settle them in ways that show the benefits of a wide range of ideas being used. Controversies also result in a high degree of emotional involvement in and commitment to solving the problems the group is working on. Groups with heterogeneous members are

often more effective than homogeneous groups because with heterogeneity come more frequent natural controversies.

General Field of Group Dynamics Whether individuals' views are challenged by a majority or by a minority of group members has important implications on the outcomes of controversy. Majorities typically exert more influence than do minorities through compliance or conversion. Minorities convert through validating their position. Those exposed to minority views are stimulated to attend to more aspects of the situation, they think in more divergent ways, and they are more likely to detect novel solutions or come to new decisions. On the balance, these solutions and decisions are "better" or "more correct."

The broad field of group dynamics provides numerous bodies of research in the areas of goals and motivation, minority influence, leadership, communication, power and diversity, that support the theory of controversy. The central role of controversy in effective decision making and creative problem solving is discussed in depth.

It is vital for citizens in a democracy to seek reasoned judgment on the complex problems facing our society. Structured academic controversies are a vital instructional tool that teaches the skills students need to be responsible citizens in a democracy, resolve civil justice issues without going to court, and improve their academic achievement.

Use behaviors that promote student learning.

- Be aware of supportive behaviors and selectively emphasize those with which you are comfortable. Using humor, praising student performance, and engaging students in conversations outside class are particularly important in contributing to learning. Other behaviors significant for learning are: self-disclosure by the teacher; encouraging students to talk; asking questions about student's viewpoints or feelings; following up on topics raised by students even if they were not directly related to the material; referring to "our" class and what "we" are doing; providing constructive feedback on student work; asking for student opinions about assignments, due dates or discussion topics; and inviting students to telephone or meet him or her outside class if they want to discuss something.

Interestingly, as class size increased, certain behaviors became more significant, in

a comparison of small classes (1-25 students) with mid-sized classes (26-50 students). Specifically, self-disclosure, asking questions and encouraging student responses, and using the referents "our" and "we" became increasingly important with regard to cognitive and affective learning. Addressing students by name and asking for viewpoints followed the same pattern, particularly for affective learning. The conscious use of these behaviors by an instructor, therefore, can have a significant impact on the college classroom.

- Aspire to becoming a master teacher. Those who developed a high degree of interpersonal rapport with students are "extremely warm and open," "highly student-centered" and "predictable." An observer watching teacher behaviors in the classroom would see someone: a) who is very interested in students as individuals; b) who is very sensitive to student responses to the material or its presentation; c) who encourages students to state their opinions about matters of assignments and class policy and, upon occasion, will poll them on their preferences; d) who encourages students to ask questions, to formulate their views, and seems genuinely interested in what they have to say; e) who lets students know that their understanding of the material is important to the instructor; and f) who encourages students to become creative, independent thinkers.

Although most of us may never reach the goal of becoming a master teacher, we can be knowledgeable about—and practice—those behaviors that create a supportive environment and promote student learning.

Change your approach systematically.

Modifying how we teach is a difficult process. If approached systematically, however, the chances for making lasting changes are greatly improved. Consider implementing the following approach: a) Develop an awareness of how you teach. What strategies do you use? How often? What behaviors do you exhibit? b) Gather information on those areas of interest. Have a colleague observe you or have students provide feedback. c) Decide what specific changes you want to attempt. d) Slowly and systematically incorporate those changes into your classroom. e) Assess the effectiveness of the changes and loop back to "b)" if necessary. These steps, if diligently applied, can enhance and perhaps even transform our teaching effectiveness.

Jeff Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookscheaper.com. Jeff is a prolific writer, Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles and special reports.

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