Key Learning Principle #1. ACADEMIC INVOLVEMENT
Promoting Students’ Active Engagement with the Content (Subject Matter)
Key Learning Principle #2. SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Promoting Students’ Interpersonal Interaction During the Process of Learning
¨ TEACHING PRACTICES THAT PROMOTE LEARNING BY INCREASING STUDENTS’ ACTIVE & SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT
1. Instructional Procedures that Activate Students’ Prior Knowledge & Feelings About the To-Be-Learned Material Prior to the Learning Experience –e.g., “Whips”
2. Instructor-Posed Questions that Promote Student Involvement
3. “Punctuated”-Lecture Practices that Promote Student Thinking During the Intsructor’s Presentation –e.g., “Quick Thinks”
4. Peer-Interaction Strategies:
A. Paired-Peer (Dyadic) Interaction Between Two Students
–e.g., “Pairs-Share”
B. Small-Group Interaction Among 3-6 Students –e.g., “Pairs-Square”
C. Collaborative Learning
–Reaching Consensus in Small Groups
D. Cooperative Learning
–Working Interdependently in Small Groups to Complete a Common/Unified Product
(e.g., “Jigsaw”)
6. Post-Learning Activities that Promote Student “Processing” of the Learning Experience After Its Completion –e.g., “Minute Papers”
¨ TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESSES THAT PROMOTE INSTRUCTOR-STUDENT RAPPORT & INTERACTION
* Learning & using students’ names
* Learning & remembering personal information about individual students (e.g., student information cards)
* Allowing students’ some input and personal choice with respect to course content (e.g., topic-interest inventories; topic-assignment menus; personal needs assessments)
* Delivering Personalized feedback to students (e.g., instructor's written comments in response to student journal entries)
* Personal welcome letter to students before the course begins
* Sharing personal experiences with students (e.g., course-relevant anecdotes)
* Soliciting & acknowledging students’ feelings
* Using course-relevant humor
* Sharing home phone number with students
* Individual or group conferences with students on campus
* Computer conferencing with students via e-mail
* Out-of-Class availability to students (e.g., office hours immediately before and after class)
* Inviting students to instructor’s home
* Meeting students on their “turf” (e.g., class session conducted in student residence halls).
* Instructor participation in student life (e.g., attending co-curricular events/activities).
¨ TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESSES THAT PROMOTE STUDENT-STUDENT RAPPORT & INTERACTION
* Ice-Breaker Activities that Build Class "Community" & Promote "Peer Networking"
* Small-Group Discussions
* “Team” Learning Activities that Involve Interdependent Roles & a Common Product
* Group Projects
* Student Panel Reports
* E-mail Interactions with Classmates and/or with Students in First-Year Seminars at Other Institutions
* Interaction with Peer Leaders (e.g., peer teaching assistants).
¨ TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESSES THAT PROMOTE STUDENT INVOLVEMENT BY STIMULATING INTRINSIC INTEREST & MOTIVATION
1. Reality-Based, “Problem-Centered” Learning Tasks
"Real life" problems or issues that: (a) are not easily solved or resolved, and (b) require
decision-making or choice from among equally appealing alternatives.
* Cases (Case Method): Stories, actual events, or fictitious events approximating reality that require decision making and encourage critical thinking with respect to an ambiguous situation or problem for which there is no single correct answer or solution (e.g., college-adjustment cases based on, or constructed from instructors' personal experiences with first-year students).
* Critical Incidents: Short (5-10 line) account of an open-ended problem that is typically less detailed than a case study and involves fewer characters or points of view (e.g., racial incident reported in national or local newspaper serves as focal point for class discussion).
* Role Plays: Dramatic enactments of events in which the characters' behaviors or relationships represent an issue or dilemma with which the student audience can identify (e.g., students role-play a job interview or role-play active, passive, and "rude" classroom behaviors).
* Scripts: Role plays that are written or read, rather than enacted dramatically or theatrically (e.g., student completes an unfinished plot by responding as if she where one of the characters in the scripted scenario).
* Simulations: learning tasks which immerse students in a physical or social environment that serves as a model for a real-life experience. (For example, the BaFa’-BaFa’ inter-cultural simulation in which students assume membership of either the Alpha or Beta culture–each with its own set of cultural values, expectations, customs and communication styles–whereby members of each group visit, observe, and interact with the “foreign” culture to experience what it is like to function effectively in a culture that differs radically from their own.
2. Educational Games
Highly engaging learning formats that involve competitive rules of “play” (e.g.,
learning factual course-related information via formats that simulate games,
such as "Jeopardy" or "Trivial Pursuits").
3. Focal Points or Prompts: educational stimuli designed to capture attention, stimulate interest, and elicit involvement.
* Classic quotes
* Provocative passages (e.g., paragraph, short poem)
* Poignant pictures (visual images)
* Riveting video vignettes
* Intriguing artifacts
* Concept-relevant cartoons.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS & EXERCISES
TAXONOMY OF “CORE” ASSIGNMENTS AND EXERCISES FOR THE FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR:
1. ASSIGNMENTS THAT “CONNECT” STUDENTS WITH KEY ACADEMIC-SUPPORT & STUDENT-DEVELOPMENT STAFF
2. SELF-AWARENESS/SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
3. EXPERIENTIAL "DISCOVERY-LEARNING” EXERCISES: Learning directly through first-hand ("hands on") experience and self-discovery.
4. IMMEDIATE STUDENT-SUCCESS APPLICATION ASSIGNMENTS: Students immediately implement or apply success strategies learned in the seminar during their first semester of college life.
5. FUTURE-PLANNING ASSIGNMENTS: Students develop tentative long- range plans that connect their present college experience with their future goals and aspirations.
1. ASSIGNMENTS THAT “CONNECT” STUDENTS WITH KEY ACADEMIC- SUPPORT & STUDENT-DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS
* Students construct questions for support professionals who are invited to class as guest speakers or members of a presentation panel
* Students interview support-service professionals outside the classroom
* Assignments that link or connect students with:
- Academic advisor s
- Learning assistance (learning resource) professionals
- Computer assistance professionals
- Faculty in students' intended major
- Upper-division students in the students’ intended major
- Graduate students in the same or similar academic specialization
- Career counselors
- Personal counselors
- Student life (student development) professionals
- Health service professionals
- Campus minister
- Service-learning professionals (e.g., office for volunteer programs)
- Financial aid counselors.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. SELF-AWARENESS/SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
* Writing-To-Learn Assignments: short writing assignments designed to stimulate personal reflection and enhance the depth of the learning/thinking process.
Examples:
- Minute Papers: very short writing assignments (taking one minute or less to complete) following a particular learning experience (e.g., at the end of a class session) which prompt personal reflection by the learner and provide useful feedback to the instructor about the learning process.
- Journals: written reflections on personal experiences over an extended period of time which provide the writer with a chronological record of thoughts and feelings that can be reviewed to detect patterns of continuity or change (e.g., first-semester journal).
- Freewriting: quickly recorded thoughts, feelings, or free associations on a topic or subject which are generated with little regard for mechanics (e.g., feelings or anxieties about college).
- Learning Logs: extended reflective-writing assignments in which students record their personal learning experiences over an extended period of time, such as (a) what they think they’re learning in a course, (b) how they are learning it, or (c) their feelings about the learning process and their personal progress.
- Microthemes: brief, focused writing assignments (short enough to fit on a 5X8 card) which require students to take a personal position or offer a personal interpretation (e.g., "thesis-support" microthemes in which students choose from one of two opposing positions or theses and write a microtheme defending that position).
* Self-Assessment Inventories
Examples:
- Learning-style instruments
- Vocational-interest inventories
- Personality profiles
- Time-management assessments
- Wellness/Life-Style questionnaires.
* Self-Examination for Self-Improvement Exercises
Examples:
- Self-assessment of academic progress at midterm
- Examining present behavior, past influences contributing to present behavior, and intended future behavior (e.g., intended behavioral changes or improvements)
- Examining consistencies/discrepancies between intentions & actions
- Unearthing blocks/barriers/excuses for failing to act on intentions.
3. EXPERIENTIAL "DISCOVERY-LEARNING” EXERCISES: Learning directly through first-hand ("hands on") experience and self-discovery
. For example: At the start of a class session, students individually try to recall as much as they can from last class, after which they team-up in small groups and pool their individually- recalled information. The resulting discrepancy between the group’s collective memory and the memory of single individuals, allows students to discover first-hand the power of peer collaboration and teamwork.
. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. IMMEDIATE STUDENT-SUCCESS APPLICATION ASSIGNMENTS: Students immediately implement or apply success strategies learned in the seminar during their first semester of college life.
Examples:
* Implementing a time-management plan for the first term (e.g., constructing a semester schedule that includes due dates for tests/assignments in all courses and designated times for study, recreation, work, etc.).
* Applying effective learning strategies to current courses (e.g., keeping a “learning log” of success strategies discussed in the seminar that are being applied to other first- semester courses).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. FUTURE-PLANNING ASSIGNMENTS: Students develop tentative long-range plans that connect their present college experience with their future goals and aspirations.
Examples:
* Long-Range Educational Plans:
- General-Education plan
- Academic-Major plan
- Post-Graduate educational plan.
* Career Plans:
- Identifying ideal career positions
- Constructing an ideal resume
- Initiating a portfolio--collection of materials that illustrate & document student competencies, accomplishments, and/or growth over time (e.g., best written work, art work, research projects, letters of recommendation, co-curricular accomplishments, personal awards, and certificates of achievement).
* Life Plans: Plans embracing elements of personal growth and holistic (whole-person) development that include social, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual dimensions-- in addition to educational and vocational goals.
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© 1999 thomas.kesterson@kctcs.net