Active Learning Toolkit and Images
This appendix contains materials intended to illustrate and supplement the discussions of active learning in the text of the report. It includes:
• Images, including cartoons, that illustrate active learning concepts and applications;
• Projects and resources devoted to promoting active learning in science education; and
• References to research on the science of learning, expanded from the references cited in the text.
USEFUL IMAGES
PROJECTS AND RESOURCES TO IMPROVE SCIENCE EDUCATION
BEN
BiosciEdNet (BEN) Collaborative was established in 1999 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) with 11 other professional societies and coalitions. The BEN Collaborative mission is not only to provide seamless access to e-resources but to also serve as a catalyst for strengthening teaching and learning in the biological sciences. BEN resources have been reviewed by the individual societies for standards of quality and accuracy; the collaborative establishment of its metadata structure permits the user to easily conduct productive interdisciplinary searches across the diverse biological sciences topics. www.biosciednet.org
BioQuest
The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium (BQCC) is a community of scientists, teachers, and learners who are interested in supporting biology education that reflects realistic scientific practices. The efforts in science education build on a commitment to engaging learners in a full spectrum of biological inquiry from problem posing to problem solving and peer persuasion. Many of the projects involve coordinating faculty development workshops that focus on strategies for bringing realistic scientific experiences into their classrooms and collaboratively developing curriculum projects.
Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL)
The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is an NSF Center for Learning and Teaching in higher education. CIRTL uses graduate education as the leverage point to develop a national STEM faculty committed to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences as part of successful professional careers. The goal of CIRTL is to improve the STEM learning of all students at every college and university, and thereby to increase the diversity in STEM fields and the STEM literacy of the nation.
To prepare the future STEM faculty of the nation, CIRTL influences graduate-throughfaculty preparation in teaching and learning at a significant number of research universities. Building on the CIRTL Core ideas, the project proposes to achieve this goal through a learning community of diverse research universities mutually engaged in teaching-as-research activities.
Established in fall 2006, the CIRTL Network was comprised of Howard University, Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Vanderbilt University. After a substantial expansion in 2011, the Network now includes 25 research universities across the nation. The diversity of these institutions—private/public; large/moderate size; majority-/minority-serving; geographic location—is by design aligned with CIRTL’s mission.
MicrobeWorld
Established in 2003, MicrobeWorld is an interactive multimedia educational outreach initiative from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) that promotes awareness and understanding of key microbiological issues to adult and youth audiences and showcases the significance of microbes in our lives. The various
outreach methods feature the process of discovery, historical changes in research, and a variety of scientific careers in industry, academia, and government.
MERLOT
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer-reviewed higher-education online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT’s strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer-reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty-designed courses.
PKAL
Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) is one of the leading advocates in the United States for what works in building and sustaining strong undergraduate programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As an intelligence broker within the undergraduate STEM community, PKAL disseminates resources that advance the work of academic leaders tackling the challenging work of ensuring that the undergraduate STEM learning environment serves 21st century students, science, and society most effectively, efficiently, and creatively. PKAL themes include institutional transformation, human and physical infrastructure, the academic program, pedagogical tools, the national context, and twenty-first century student education.
SENCER
Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) was initiated in 2001 under the National Science Foundation’s CCLI national dissemination track. Since then, SENCER has established and supported an ever-growing community of faculty, students, academic leaders, and others to improve undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education by connecting learning to critical civic questions. SENCER’s goals are to: (1) get more students interested and engaged in learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, (2) help students connect STEM learning to their other studies, and (3) strengthen students’ understanding of science and their capacity for responsible work and citizenship.
Workshop for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty
Since 1996, the American Association of Physics Teachers has sponsored workshops designed to help new faculty at research and four-year institutions understand how to become more effective educators and support their quest to gain tenure. Because of the pressure to establish their credentials in research or other scholarly activities, new faculty may be tempted to postpone or ignore the development of teaching proficiency. They may receive direct or subtle messages suggesting that only a focus on research will result in career advancement, and there is often a lack of mentors or role models
who demonstrate dedication and enthusiasm for teaching.
Similar signals are transmitted to graduate students who may be in training for academic careers. Moreover, because the research universities include many of our large public institutions, a large number of undergraduates may suffer as a result of inadequate preparation of new faculty for teaching.
Data suggest that this inadequate attention to teaching, especially in introductory science and math courses, is responsible for driving students away from undergraduate majors in science, mathematics and engineering.
To improve the quality of physics teaching on a national scale, AAPT created the New Faculty Workshop. Each workshop presents a small number of techniques that have proven to be effective in a variety of environments. These tactics can be implemented with minimal time and effort, thus allowing new faculty to devote more of their attention to research and scholarship.
Each spring and fall, department chairs at research and four-year institutions are asked to nominate tenure-track faculty in the first few years of their initial appointment. The ideal candidate would have a year or two of teaching experience so that they are aware of the challenges of the first year of teaching.
In 2002, the American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society joined with AAPT to expand the reach of this program. Financial support is provided by the National Science Foundation.
www.aapt.org/Conferences/newfaculty/nfw.cfm
REFERENCES
Bernhard, J. 2001. Does active engagement curricula give long-lived conceptual understanding? pp. 749-752. In: Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000, R. Pinto and S. Surinach, eds. Paris: Elsevier.
Brewer, C., and D. Smith, eds. 2011. Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Handelsman, J., S. Miller, and C. Pfund. 2006. Scientific Teaching. San Francisco: Freeman and Sons.
Knight, J.K., and W.B. Wood. 2005. Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell Biology Education 4:298-310.
Michael, J. 2006. Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education 30:159-167.
Meltzer, D., and R. Thornton. 2012. Resource Letter ALIP-1: Active-Learning Instruction in Physics. American Journal of Physics 80(6):478.
NRC (National Research Council). 2000. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (Expanded Edition). Washington: National Academy Press.
NRC. 2003. BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2004. Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2006b. America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2007b. Taking Science to School. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2008. Ready, Set, Science! Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2009c. On Being a Scientist. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2011d. Promising Practices in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education:
Summary of Two Workshops. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2011e. Research in the Life Sciences with Dual Use Potential: An International Faculty Development Project on Education about the Responsible Conduct of Science. Washington: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2012b. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington: National Academies Press.
Prince, M. 2004 Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education 93(3):223-231.
Springer, L., M. Stanne, S. Donovan. 1999. Measuring the Success of Small-Group Learning in College-Level SMET Teaching: A Meta-Analysis. Madison: National Institute for Science Education, University of Wisconsin. Available at http://www.wcer. wisc.edu/archive/cl1/cl/resource/scismet.htm; accessed June 17, 2013.
Springer, L., M. Stanne, and S. Donovan. 1999. Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research 69(1):21-51.