Combating Student Resistance to
Active Learning
Kyong-Hee Melody Lee
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics
kmlee1@usi.edu
465-1273
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Definition
Active Learning is
any instructional method that requires students
to engage in class in ways other than sitting and
listening.
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Why Do Students Resist Active
Learning?
According to Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent,
1996
(Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered
Instruction)
“The students, whose teachers have been telling
them everything they needed to know from the
first grade on, don’t necessarily appreciate having
this support suddenly withdrawn.”
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Six Causes of Resistance to Learning
The Teaching Professor, March 2009 (Six Causes of Resistance to Learning)
Brookfield, Stephen D., 1990 (The Skillful Teacher)
1. “Poor Self-Image as Learners – If students don’t think they can learn, they often
resist efforts that seek to make them learn. …
2. Fear of the Unknown – Some students resist learning because they are afraid.
Students like doing what they already know. …
3. Disjunction Between Learning and Teaching Styles – … Sometimes students
resist when their preferred approach to learning is at odds with how the
information is organized or is being presented.
4. Apparent Irrelevance of the Learning Activity – Students resist learning when
they don’t see how or what an activity contributes to their efforts to learn. If it
looks like busywork or a waste of time, students resist. …
5. Inappropriate Level of Required Learning – Students get frustrated and angry
when they can’t understand the content. They object to unfamiliar language and
the fast-paced delivery of complicated material. The frustration quickly becomes
resistance. …
6. Students’ Dislike of Teachers – It’s not a particularly pleasant thought, but
sometimes students resist because they just plain don’t like the teacher. …”
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Introduction
In this presentation, I will share my
experiences on how I am working on
combating student resistance to
Active Learning in terms of
Brookfield’s Six Causes of Resistance
to Learning using the following four
steps in my Math 111 course.
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Step 1- Understanding Students
Students in Math 111 come from diverse
mathematics backgrounds, academic
experiences, learning styles, and paces of
learning.
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Step 2 - Understanding Problems
In my Math 111 class,
• 28% of the students are the first generation
attending the university
• 55% of the students are first child attending
the university
• 49% of the students are full time students and
are working either full time or part time
• 84% of the students may not know effective
study skills.
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Step 3 - Make Plans and Implement
My plan was to design the course so that
students will spend their time and energy
effectively in learning the course materials,
and develop good study habits.
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Plan #1: Set the Course Requirements
•
•
•
•
Homework (consists of parts I , II, and III)
Pop Quizzes
11 Quizzes (2 quizzes = 1 exam)
Final Exam
Total
180 points
20 points
550 points
250 points
1000 points
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Homework Part I
Part I of the assignments consists of watching,
listening, and taking notes on selected video
recorded examples from MathXL. (Done
before coming to class)
This helps students to combat #2 Fear of the
Unknown.
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Homework Part II
• Part II of the assignments consists of reading the textbook and
writing down answers using their own words to some questions I
have made for them. (Done before coming to class.)
• On the first day of the class, I walk through the SQ3R textbook
reading strategy with students using the first textbook reading
assignment. (SQ3R = Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review; I
also give information on how to improve their comprehension skill.)
This helps students,
to begin to develop effective study skills and study habits
This helps students to combat #2 Fear of the Unknown.
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In class Problem Solving Activity
Mostly, right after about 5 -15 minutes of reading and discussing the information in the summary
handout, students do the Problem Solving Activity. They are allowed to do this problem solving
activity individually or in group. (Students are encouraged to ask questions to their peers and/or
me.)
This helps students,
• to learn at their own pace or with their own peers
• to eliminate any possible peer pressures
• to actively practice skills in reflecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating mathematical
concepts
• to answer any questions they have in problem solving right in class
This is a very important activity time, since they must know how to solve various types of
problems for their quizzes and the final exam.
This helps students to see that the class activity is directly relevant to their learning.
Hence, this helps students to combat #4 Apparent Irrelevance of Learning.
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Pop Quizzes
Pop Quizzes are for something that students must remember, for
instance, formulas. I give students one to two minutes to remember
one formula whenever necessary and give them a pop quiz on it.
I let students know that my intension of giving them a pop quiz is not
to surprise or scare them, but it is to help them to solve problems
efficiently without looking for formulas.
This helps students,
• to know that I am reasonable, trying to help them learn content
materials efficiently, and care about their successful learning.
This helps students to combat #6 Students’ Dislike of Teachers.
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Quizzes
I give no exams but frequent long quizzes. Mostly each quiz takes
about 25 to 30 minutes to complete.
Two quizzes = 1 exam.
This helps students,
• to digest and focus on a smaller amount of content material
• to catch up with material they did not understand
• to release stress and frustration
This helps students to combat #5 Inappropriate Level of Required
learning.
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After Each Quiz (1)
• We go over the quiz using the remaining time, while their memory is
fresh.
• This helps them to correct their error(s) immediately. (Once in a while, if
my quiz got little bit longer than usual, I go over the quiz during the next
class meeting.)
• Using the Stem-and-Leaf Diagram, I show the class grade distribution to
students for each quiz.
This helps students,
• to see that the teaching and learning method we are using is working out
for most of them
• to see their grade in terms of whole class
This helps students to combat #3 Disjunction Between Learning and
Teaching Styles.
This also helps students to combat Poor Self-Image as Learners #1.
.
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After Each Quiz (2)
After students successfully receive a good grade
on their first quiz, they begins to build
self-confidence.
Experiencing this successful result encourages
and/or self-motivates students to continue to
actively engage in learning.
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Final Exam
This course has a Departmental Final Exam
which mostly focuses on testing how to solve
various mathematical problems.
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Plan #2: On the first day of the class
Help students to understand why the course is
set up in this way, and my expectations.
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First day of the class (1)
I share a quote from the book Creating Significant
Learning Experiences with my students.
“At the end of the lecture, the average level of
the students’ recall of information was 42
percent. One week later, even with the benefit of
taking the same test a second time, students’
recall had dropped to 20 percent.”
L. Dee Fink, 2003
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I also share Dale’s Cone of Experience
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First day of the class (2)
I also tell students that
•
•
•
Students usually do not have anyone to ask questions when they are stuck solving
problems at home.
Hence, this course is design to spend more time on problem solving in class.
In this way, students can benefit more when they are taking quizzes/final exam.
•
In order to spend a good amount of time with Problem Solving Activity, they must
thoroughly complete part I and II of the homework assignments at home.
•
When the course materials get difficult, I will give at most 30 minutes of lecture.
This helps students to combat #3 Disjunction Between Learning and Teaching Styles,
and #4 Apparent Irrelevance of the Learning Activity.
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First day of the class (3)
I set up a common goal for students and me.
• Successfully completing the course requirement, and moving on with their
degree program without any delay.
• No one should be left behind and be required to repeat this course.
I periodically remind the goal to students whenever they seemed to be side
tracked (or distracted).
This helps
• students to see that the instructor has the best intention for their
success.
• to build trust between the instructor and students
This helps students to combat #6 Students’ Dislike of Teachers
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Step 4 - The Results of the Course
Design
Some of students’ written comments:
Please make some comments regarding teaching and learning of this course. Thank you!
•
“At first I wasn’t to sure about how the class was going to work for me. I have never done anything like this and
was not used to it. The beginning started a little ruff, but now that I know the workings of the class, I do feel that
it is working for me. As of right now, I like the way the class is structured. I feel your teaching is very good and
overall I am having a good experience.”
•
“I honestly love the way this class is structured. Normally I would dread going to math classes because we would
spend 50 minutes writing notes that were never thoroughly explained and then sent home to wing 2 hours of
homework. I like that we get introduced to the material at home to get familiar with it and then come to class
with questions prepared. I have never had a grade this high in a college level math class and have never felt this
comfortable with the materials. All teachers should use this strategy.”
•
“I’ve never had a professor structure a course, especially a Math course this way. I gave the class a chance,
figuring I’m not very good at Math, what can it hurt? I found myself learning more and being/feeling more
comfortable than expected. I like this teaching/learning structure! Why weren’t they all like this. Love it!”
•
“I don’t like this style of teaching, because it is not really teaching. In this style, the students are teaching
themselves far more than they are learning from the teacher. I learn better when the teacher goes through this
section in class and answers any questions the students have. On the plus side, this style of teaching helps the
students create smart study habits that will also benefit us in other classes.”
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Comparison of grades from two
sections
Quiz #
Class Average of Each Quiz
Spring 2013
Fall 2013
Lecture
Active Learning
1
77
84
2
68
83
3
85
86
4
65
78
5
72
74
6
74
83
Fall 2013 average quiz
scores are consistently
higher than in spring
2013
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Conclusion
Carefully designed classroom activities that will directly help students to:
1) experience successful results in the course starting from the early part of the
Semester;
2) enhance analytical, critical, and problem solving skills;
3) develop effective study skills;
are three utmost important elements that I am using to combat my students’
resistance to active learning.
•
“There is now strong empirical evidence that active involvement in the learning
process is vitally important in two areas: a) for the mastery of skills, such as critical
thinking and problem-solving; and b) for contributing to the student’s likelihood of
persisting to program completion” (Braxton, Jones, Hirschy, & Hartkey, 2008;
Prince, 2004) ~ Center for Faculty Excellence at University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
•
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
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Suggested Reading
The following two books greatly influenced my
active teaching methods:
1. “Creating Significant Learning Experiences”
by L. Dee Fink
2. “Promoting Active Learning” by Chet Meyers
& Thomas B. Jones
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Thank you!
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