I am happy to share with you another great installment in our series of posts on student engagement. Today we have a great reflection by Megan Dunbar. Her piece centers on the use of active learning and other engagement techniques in her Psychology of Group Dynamics course. Her narrative talks about the ways she refined different aspects of the course and way students interacted with each other. Click below for to read this great reflection, |
The innovations in teaching workshop this past summer was filled with ideas that I plan to implement in my psychology courses. While I have a list of changes I plan to make, I chose to implement one major change to my Psychology of Group Dynamics (PSYC 342) course this past fall. I decided to focus on one key change for this particular course so that it would be easier for me to compare this section to prior semesters without adding too many extraneous variables.
While I already implement some of the ideas that were touched on in the workshop (e.g. the use of PowerPoint’s, embedded videos, and active learning techniques) this fall I also made a physical change by teaching my class in the active learning classroom. This classroom has round tables rather than desks and each table comes equip with a computer and white board. Before I started teaching in this room, I went through a brief training on how to utilize all the technology that goes along with it. I do suggest going through the training because it shows you all the options you have in the classroom and will help you feel more comfortable with the computer systems.
Being a Group Dynamics course, my students work in groups throughout the semester. Previous semesters I taught the course in more traditional classrooms where the students would sit in rows during my lectures and then would have to move their desks to gather together for group work. This often created a few problems. First, I lost valuable class time by having to wait for them to move to work in their groups. I do many active learning activities (at least one per class session and sometimes more) so moving back and forth between covering material and in-class activities was cumbersome. Second, with all their desks bunched together during their group work, it often made it difficult for me to be able to move from group to group to check in on them. In this new set up, neither of these prior hassles was an issue. In this room, the students were always with their groups and I could easily move about the classroom.
One change I noticed was within the dynamics of the small groups was that the groups became cohesive more quickly as compared to prior semesters. I think that because they were always sitting in a small circle facing each other, they had more contact with each other from the very start. I saw the difference by the third class session when the groups chose their team name and mascot. In prior semesters, by the third session they are still unsure of each other and as a result I usually got boring team names (e.g. The A team, The B team) and this last semester they were much more creative and typically chose a name that had something to do with their group members. This enthusiasm carried on throughout the semester. Many students reported that they looked forward to working in their groups.
Another change I noticed was with intergroup communication. Having the computer and white board at each group’s table allowed for easier interactions between the different groups. I often had groups decide their answer to a discussion question and write their answer on their board. This allowed everyone to easily see each groups answer. The computers also allowed for quick in class research projects. Some days I gave each group a specific topic to look up and they would then give a short presentation to the class.
I plan to use this classroom again for this specific course although the set up is not suited for everyone. One downside to using this classroom is that by having the students sit in groups, some students have their back to the professor. For a course that involves a lot of time in a lecture format this setup would is not ideal for student engagement and note taking.
Overall, it was a positive experience and I am happy to answer any questions one may have about the active learning classroom.
While I already implement some of the ideas that were touched on in the workshop (e.g. the use of PowerPoint’s, embedded videos, and active learning techniques) this fall I also made a physical change by teaching my class in the active learning classroom. This classroom has round tables rather than desks and each table comes equip with a computer and white board. Before I started teaching in this room, I went through a brief training on how to utilize all the technology that goes along with it. I do suggest going through the training because it shows you all the options you have in the classroom and will help you feel more comfortable with the computer systems.
Being a Group Dynamics course, my students work in groups throughout the semester. Previous semesters I taught the course in more traditional classrooms where the students would sit in rows during my lectures and then would have to move their desks to gather together for group work. This often created a few problems. First, I lost valuable class time by having to wait for them to move to work in their groups. I do many active learning activities (at least one per class session and sometimes more) so moving back and forth between covering material and in-class activities was cumbersome. Second, with all their desks bunched together during their group work, it often made it difficult for me to be able to move from group to group to check in on them. In this new set up, neither of these prior hassles was an issue. In this room, the students were always with their groups and I could easily move about the classroom.
One change I noticed was within the dynamics of the small groups was that the groups became cohesive more quickly as compared to prior semesters. I think that because they were always sitting in a small circle facing each other, they had more contact with each other from the very start. I saw the difference by the third class session when the groups chose their team name and mascot. In prior semesters, by the third session they are still unsure of each other and as a result I usually got boring team names (e.g. The A team, The B team) and this last semester they were much more creative and typically chose a name that had something to do with their group members. This enthusiasm carried on throughout the semester. Many students reported that they looked forward to working in their groups.
Another change I noticed was with intergroup communication. Having the computer and white board at each group’s table allowed for easier interactions between the different groups. I often had groups decide their answer to a discussion question and write their answer on their board. This allowed everyone to easily see each groups answer. The computers also allowed for quick in class research projects. Some days I gave each group a specific topic to look up and they would then give a short presentation to the class.
I plan to use this classroom again for this specific course although the set up is not suited for everyone. One downside to using this classroom is that by having the students sit in groups, some students have their back to the professor. For a course that involves a lot of time in a lecture format this setup would is not ideal for student engagement and note taking.
Overall, it was a positive experience and I am happy to answer any questions one may have about the active learning classroom.