Herdsa 2010

HERDSA 2010 program: Workshop five

Fostering active learning in large university classrooms

Danny R. Bedgood Jr

Charles Sturt University, Australia

Adam Bridgeman

The University of Sydney, Australia

Kieran Lim and Gayle Morris

Deakin University, Australia

Brian Yates and Michael Gardiner

University of Tasmania, Australia

Simon Pyke

The University of Adelaide, Australia

Mark Buntine, Mauro Mocerino, Daniel Southam and Mario Zadnik

Curtin University of Technology, Australia

There is a growing recognition for a need to reshape teaching in higher education – a need for a move away from didactic, mono-cultural learning environments to more student-centred teaching in science and non-science university subjects. Such student centred learning provides a number of benefits to students, including:

  1. Higher achievement and increased retention
  2. More frequent higher-level reasoning, deeper-level understanding, and critical thinking
  3. More time on task and less disruptive behaviour
  4. Greater achievement motivation and intrinsic motivation to learn
  5. Greater ability to view situations from others' perspectives and greater social support
  6. More positive attitudes toward subject areas, learning, and school
  7. More positive self-esteem based on basic self-acceptance
  8. Greater social competencies

This workshop will model a particular method of student centred learning by allowing participants to experience an active learning environment as a student. This method, POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, www.pogil.org), develops student process skills at the same time as using guided inquiry to build discipline knowledge. There will be presentation and discussion of tools and methods participants can use to manage the logistics of student centred learning in large classrooms. While the origin of this project lies in the science domain, this workshop experience is geared towards instructors in all disciplines.