ELEMENTS OF ACTIVE LEARNING
Lisa Keys Mathews
Department of Geography
University of North Alabama

". . . students, no matter what their age, need opportunities to engage in activities - with teachers, fellow students, and materials - that help them create their own mental structures and test them, thus making better sense of the world around them."  (Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 20-21)

Meyers and Jones (1993) contend that there are four basic elements that are the building blocks of active learning strategies.  Another way to look at the four elements is as methods of teaching using active learning techniques.  These four elements are:

I have added this section to the web pages because all four of these items require "different cognitive activities that allow students to clarify, question, consolidate, and appropriate new knowledge." (Meyers and Jones, 1993).  The book Promoting Active Learning (Meyers and Jones, 1993) is the only source that addresses these "building blocks" so this section is limited in sources and basically what I do is summarize their work.  However, I have addressed ways that I implement these four elements in my GIS classes.  These four items are skills that we all need to improve upon and we will serve our students well, by addressing and understanding them.

TALKING & LISTENING
"Talking clarifies thinking" (p. 21)  

There is not one of us (including our students) who isn't bombarded by too much noise and chatter on a daily basis.  So why do we address talking as a part of active learning?  As the statement above notes, when we express ourselves out loud we have a tendency to pull ideas together and organize out thoughts.   How many of us have said, "I just need to talk it out" or "I'm just talking off the top of my head."  What we are indeed doing, is formulating the multitude of ideas that we have bouncing around our brains.  Therefore, students need to talk (and listen) to each other because it requires them to nail down their thoughts and to organize their thought processes.

One talking-listening, problem solving process is known as TAPPS - Thinking Aloud Pair Problem Solving (Lochhead and Whimbey, 1987).  In this process, two students are paired together and one student is given a problem to solve.  He/she reads the problem aloud and then starts to try and solve the problem by talking through it.  The other student is engaged in "active listening" which requires him/her to listen to the problem solver and help organize and clarify the verbalized thoughts.  It is very important that the problem solver verbalize everything that he/she is thinking.  Another part of this process is to assign a knowledgeable student with one that is struggling which allows them to develop a mentoring relationship.  Another similar activity might include allowing students to form small groups and have them summarize the major points of a reading assignment.

Active listening is a very big part of this process.   If students are to learn to talk through a problem-solving situation, they must also be able to listen and to process what another person is saying.  Listening is a difficult task for us all to learn; it is a task that must be practiced.  In fact, too often we are not actively listening, but are trying to formulate our next statement and in actuality not listening at all.  One way to help students learn to listen is to have them rephrase what their partner said, before they are allowed to state their thoughts.

In my GIS class, I use group brain storming in support of this element of active learning.  For example, I might ask them to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of raster and vector data structures, then to present their thoughts to the class.  I will address each item, to ensure that their ideas are on tract and reasonable.  To make sure everyone in the group has an input, I require each person in the group to give us one idea and explain it.  This methods ensures more bold, vocal students will not overshadow quieter, more reserved students.   Another method is to make the quieter student the group spokesman ahead of time, which allows the more timid students to prepare to speak so they are not surprised.

WRITING
"Writing clarifies thinking"
(Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 23)  

Writing requires and allows us to explore our thoughts and to expand upon them.  Writing supports active learning when it allows our students, not to rewrite someone else's thoughts, but to delve into their own thoughts and to build upon and grow them.  There are a variety of exercises that incorporate writing, as well as other supporting techniques.  One of these is the "Write-Learn-Share" process (Harmin, 1994).  This technique may be implemented in any number of ways.  The teacher may pose a question and then ask the students to write down their thoughts.  When a few are finished, give a notice such as "OK, finish the thought you are working on."  Keep the flow moving, don't wait until all students are finished.  Next, ask students to share their ideas either to the class or to a smaller group, then to the larger class.

In my GIS class I use this element in this manner.  I might ask a question such as "What data layers would be needed for a GIS in the Electrical Department of the City Utilities?"  or "Which data structure - raster,  vector or combination of both - is best for park management in the Bankhead Forest and why?"  Sometimes I will ask them to list ideas on their own; other times I ask them to brain storm in a group, write down their responses in a coherent manner, and come back to the class with a recommendation.  I ask each group for their ideas, but I do not allow them to repeat an idea, so they must be innovative in their ideas.  I may quickly discuss the ideas as we go, but typically to keep the class moving, I record the ideas on the chalkboard and move on.

Poor writing is often the result of too limited direction or instruction in what is the expected outcome.  Giving students a proper audience, problem and purpose for a writing assignment gives them direction.  When students are instructed to write as if they are writing to another student, they usually write with more precision and clarity.  When writing for friends, students will write more conversationally and are freed from their misconceptions of what writing is all about (Meyers and Jones, 1993).

In my GIS class for example, I often ask students to explain a process, usually a GIS software process.  For example, I may ask one small group of students to write instructions on how to export a layout in ArcView.  This requires them to determine how to do it and then to write an explanation (usually step-by-step) of how the process is completed.  The students then become the expert at this process, while providing everyone else instructions on how to accomplish the task.  A mentoring effect also takes place in this situation.

When we ask students to write, we must provide them explicit instructions by defining and explain words such as "analyze" or "critique".  What exactly do these words mean and do they mean the same thing to me as they do to another professor?  Toby Fulwiler (1987) offers the following suggestions:

Another important item regarding writing is the fact that most employers are looking for employees with good writing skills and the more directed practice that we can provide our students the better prepared for the job market they will be.

READING
"Reading requires students to . . . understand what others think, as opposed to primarily clarifying [their] own thoughts" (p. 27)  

Reading is central to a college education but we can not assume that students understand how to read critically.  Reading critically involves scanning, sorting, summarizing, understanding, relating items, identifying faulty logic or hidden messages, prioritizing, etc.  To make students more attentive readers, research suggests that we provide them with study questions before they read the assignment or to summarize, in writing, what they have read.  These exercises lead to greater comprehension, because they must pay attention to the information to draw out the requirements.

Another part of reading is note-taking, highlighting, underlining, and circling key words.  Mortimer Adler's book "How to Mark a Book" notes that "The physical act of writing, with your hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before you mind and preserves them better in your memory" (Adler, 1940, p. 12)

The bottom line is that gathering information from text is a central requirement throughout one's educational experience.  Therefore we must provide students with guidance and structure so that later they may provide themselves the structure and therefore gain the intended information from their readings.

In my GIS class, I will ask the students to read a passage (just a couple of sentence to a paragraph in length) and then ask them to comment on it.   For example, I might ask them to read about "Cartographic Modeling" (a phrase coined by Dana Tomlin) and the idea that GIS problem solving is best handled by working backwards from the solution to the data layers required.  I ask them to explain cartographic modeling, on paper, as if explaining it to a manager at the company who is unfamiliar with GIS and cartographic modeling.  After they read, write, and explain on paper, we discuss their ideas.

REFLECTING
". . . we all realize how important periods of quiet reflection are a sources of insight into our personal and academic lives." (Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 28)  

We must reserve time for our students to reflect on new material that is introduced.  This reflecting period allows students to sort through the information, put it in perspective in their minds with regard to existing information, to think of linkages with other existing information,  to construct new, related thoughts or questions, and to allow ideas to mature.

Journals are an excellent method for incorporating reflecting into the curriculum.  Some adherents to journaling reserve class time for writing while others ask students to reflect at home or later in the day.  The journal may include information such as what was covered in class today, what did they learn, and how did they feel at the end of class.

In my GIS class this Spring, I adopted a "Learning Log" process where I asked students to address the following questions everyday after lecture.

One problem with my experiment is that I did not require students to write before they left class.  By the time they leave my class and go through two or three more classes, they really don't remember enough to allow the Learning Log to help them.  In addition, I still feel that if I make a required assignment, I must grade it, which was hard to do in this case and very time consuming.  I ended up giving a grade based on whether or not each day was addressed, with points lost for days not addressed.  I counted the Log part of a category called "Class Participation" which was ten percent of their final grade.  The next time I require the Learning Log, I will also check the logs intermittently throughout the semester rather than just assuming they are reflecting and writing.  Several students told me that the Log was good for them in terms of realizing exactly what we discussed, how it fit into the grand scheme of things, and what they really didn't understand.   Of course, the major of students who felt this way were "A" students anyway.  Some students felt like it was just another "hoop" that I required and missed the significance of the Log which is for their learning progression.  I tried to instill in them that the Log was for them,  not for me.  Another use for the Log would be to start class address their Log entries from the prior class, which would allow me to clear up some fuzzy issues before we move on to the next topic.   Another option is to ask them to get with classmates later to discuss anything they are unsure about and to make sure they understand before the next class.  This would be important in a GIS class since each day really builds upon the prior day.

In conclusion, reading and listening, writing, reading and reflection are all necessary components of an active learning classroom.  Each element is really a part of others and the elements emphasize and support the others.   The use of these elements will help students learn to sort and prioritize new material, think and analyze critically, express their ideas in writing and speaking.

 

 

Last revision 6/27/99.  lkm.