Promoting Engagement

Grecor Novak

Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not to reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues. (Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, 1984)

In the May 13, 2011 issue of Science, Louis Deslauriers and colleagues report the results of an interesting experiment conducted at University of British Columbia (Deslauriers, Schelew, & Wieman, 2011). In the words of the authors:

"We compared the amounts of learning achieved using two different instructional approaches under controlled conditions. We measured the learning of a specific set of topics and objectives when taught by 3 hours of traditional lecture given by an experienced highly rated instructor and 3 hours of instruction given by a trained but inexperienced instructor using instruction based on research in cognitive psychology and physics education. The comparison was made between two large sections (N = 267 and N = 271) of an introductory undergraduate physics course. We found increased student attendance, higher engagement, and more than twice the learning in the section taught using research-based instruction."

"The instructional approach used in the experimental section included elements promoted by CWSEI and its partner initiative at the University of Colorado: pre-class reading assignments, pre-class reading quizzes, in-class clicker questions with student-student discussion (CQ), small-group active learning tasks (GT), and targeted in-class instructor feedback (IF). Before each of the three 50-min classes, students were assigned a three- or four-page reading, and they completed a short true false online quiz on the reading."

The rather striking results of this experiment highlight two important trends that research into teaching and learning has spawned during the past three decades (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). The first is the realization that replacing passive environments, even if presided over by charismatic, knowledgeable and engaging presenters, with active student-centered pedagogies leads to superior learning outcomes.

The second trend, without which the first would be much less effective, is the growing use of technology, inside and outside of the classroom.

The key features of the Deslauriers experiment are: pre-class reading assignments, pre-class reading quizzes, in-class clicker questions with student-student discussion, small-group active learning tasks, and targeted in-class instructor feedback. All of these parts carefully aligned with one another and all of it informed by education research. The students were actively involved in carefully planned activities at all times. Technology, supporting the experience in and out-of-class, was brought in as needed by the pedagogy involved. An experiment similar to the one above, but more narrowly focused, was recently conducted at North Georgia College & State University (Formica, Easley, & Spraker, 2010).

Student centered activity-based lessons and the use of information technologies in teaching and learning are work in progress, but the evidence from the classroom indicates that we are on the right track.

The two critical theoretical underpinning of these efforts are constructivism and cognitivism. To learn means to construct meaning rather than memorize facts. Student-instructor, student-student and student-content interactions, facilitated by the use of technology, drive the effort. These interactions encourage students to assume some ownership of and control over their learning, provide realistic and relevant contexts and encourage the exploration of multiple perspectives and metacognition. Cognitive science research into how the human brain processes and stores information provides the theoretical basis for lesson designs. Learning tasks are constructed to engage the learner in the learning process, to scaffold the learning as needed to foster the development of understanding, and to provide timely and meaningful feedback.

Technical tools have been assisting learning since the cave paintings. Arguably, serious large-scale use of the technology in teaching and learning can be traced to the educational films developed for the large number of servicemen returning from WWII. Media-based presentations of educational materials are still with us with Power Point and streaming video and audio. The fifties saw the emergence of two major designs, programmed instruction and mastery approach. In programmed instruction the material to be learned is broken up into small units, incorporating frequent feedback and correction. Mastery approach is based on Bloom's taxonomy of intellectual development.

These forms of instruction have evolved into CAI, computer-based and computer-assisted instruction, still with us today. During the 1980s and 1990s computer environments were developed where learners can build, explore, and immerse themselves in micro-worlds and simulations. Another major step was taken when the world-wide-web was made public in the mid-nineties, paving the way for computer-mediated-communication, CMC, which creates an always-open communication path for student-instructor, student-student and student-content interaction. CMC also provides tools for the maintenance of learning communities and for course and curriculum management. The internet has made possible the creation of distance learning, courses fully online, as well as hybrid designs, such as Just-in-Time Teaching, blending on-line work and in-class activities with live teachers. The next advance is likely to come when the mobile technologies of today are harnessed in the service of teaching and learning (Sharples, Milrad, Arnedillo Sánchez, & Vavoula, 2009). The audience for this is the next generation of students, growing up with these tools (Schachter, 2009). An astounding number of very young children are users of mobile technologies (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010). Seventy-five percent of 5 - 9 yr-olds use cell phones.

There is not much doubt that student-centered instruction, facilitated by available technology, is here to stay in one form or another. The question debated in the educational research community is: how does one optimize the many benefits of the new paradigm: easy access to course materials, improved student motivation and participation (Kulik & Kulik, 1991), differential instruction serving different learning styles, etc. Resource availability and cost issues aside, and there are many, the intellectual challenge is to find the proper balance between technology tools and live human interactions. The pedagogical strategies must follow from evidence-based science of learning...