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  Home > Resources > Library and Links > Online Postings & Articles > Collaborative/Cooperative Learning > Student Responsibility Through Active Learning

Student Responsibility Through Active Learning

(These items are from a listserv about teaching.)

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I feel that there are some things that get in the way of active learning right from the start, and that its useful to address these issues directly. These include:

1. poor critical reading skills;
2. inconsistent application of largely *unconscious* thinking skills;
3. a history of trying to discern what the teacher wants to hear (knowing that this, after all, is what gets the grade -- and there IS no room for learning from mistakes because every mistake counts against you);
4. almost non-existent self-assessment skills.

Look at it this way -- if I'm unsure about whether I read what I THOUGHT I read, know that I often fail at making a logical argument, and don't KNOW whether my work is correct, complete, beautiful, clear, etc. -- I will be highly motivated to let others take responsibility for my learning.

Therefore, it's important to do the following:

1. work with learners to help them bring their cognitive (and other) processes to consciousness -- for example using the Whimbey pair method;
2. create a safe environment to make mistakes -- once. These are learning mistakes;
3. help learners to build an assessment process -- defining goals and constraints, criteria, and a measurement process;
4. provide as much freedom as possible to pursue personal interests -- even in "core" curricula (this follows the theory presented in the Quality School by W. Glasser). I do this by stating all the exit competencies explicitly then dividing the content into separate problems that are addressed by groups in a problem-based learning format. The groups prioritize the problems, so that they get ones that they are most interested in. If there is something that is left out, I might take that section on myself (and become a co-learner). They follow a research/problem-solving format and are largely self-directed, although they submit things at various stages for feedback (in the form of strengths/areas for improvement/insights). The students then write papers and present them to their classmates in a mini-symposium. This is the half-way point in the course. The next stage is something like a journal club. Each of the papers is discussed critically in class after a week's preparation time. (They really enjoy criticizing my paper if I get a chance to give one). The learners get two individual examinations. The first is formative, the second -- in exactly the same format at the first -- is summative.

 

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