ACTIVE LEARNING - BEGINNING WITH THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS

CONTENTS: Two essays -- 1) "Boosting Student Involvement" (by William Smith, Saint Xavier College), and 2) "Quick Before it Dries: Setting The Pattern For Active Participation From Day One" (by Steve Adams University of Minnesota, Duluth). Both address ways to set the standard for participation right at the start of a new course.

SOURCE: Brigham Young University Faculty Center site (www.byu.edu/tmcbucs/fc/actlearn.htm). Adapted June 1999.

1. Boosting Student Involvement
by William Smith, School of Education, Saint Xavier College

Many of us often comment about the passivity and nonparticipation of our students. If we analyze it, we will probably find that "we have met the enemy, and they are us." We say we want student interaction, involvement, activity, and questions. Yet what do we show and model? Too often, the message we send to our students by our actions is, "I lecture--you listen." Our students learn that message quickly and fall into the clear role modeled for them, that of passive listeners.

Ten years ago, at an in-service held for part-time faculty at Moraine Valley Community College, I was fortunate to hear a clear and forceful presentation that spelled out how to get the student involvement that we say we want. The message was simple. If you want student participation, involvement, active responses and questions, you must show, model, and exemplify that in the very first part of your very first class meeting. The two in-service presenters actually argued about whether it had to occur in the first 15 minutes or in the first 20 minutes! They noted that student active involvement has to occur before you've taken attendance and before you've gone through the course outline.

Since that presentation ten years ago, I've taught 50 college classes at four colleges part-time. All first class sessions begin with either:

Paired interviews (see description below) --each student interviews another, then vice versa, and then introduces his or her new friend to the class; or

Small group discussions --students discuss a topic that will be relevant to the course content, first in small groups, then in the large group.

In both formats, the instructor's voice is heard the least for the first half hour of class. The behavior that is modeled is for students to participate, be active, ask questions, share information, and report. Then we take attendance and go through the course outline.

In my judgment, my classes are much more active using this initial class meeting technique than before I used this simple, get-them-involved-the-first-thing-at-the-first-class-meeting technique.

Paired Interviews

Students were assigned partners and interviewed one another during the first class period. Each student received the following handout, "Getting to know you (and you and you and you . . . )"

The handout gives students guidelines for interviewing their partners. Students are given about 5 minutes to complete the interview(s). Then each student introduces her/his partner to the whole class if it's small or to their small group of 5-10, if it's a large class. Usually this CANNOT be completed in the first class period and is continued over to the subsequent class meeting.

Getting to know you (and you and you and you . . .)

Find out the person's name and exactly what they want us to call them. Is there an unusual story that goes with their name?
Tell us where they're from and particularly if they've lived lots of places, or in some unusual places.
If they've decided on a major, tell us about it and a little about how and why they chose it. Find out what they like to do for fun (hobbies, etc.).
Something relating to course (expectations, why taking it, etc.)
Try to find out at least two interesting things about your partner that are different or unique.
Finally, tell us one positive thing you've noticed while interviewing your partner (i.e. nice smile, good sense of humor, modest, a good listener, or ???)

2. Quick Before it Dries: Setting The Pattern For Active Participation From Day One
by Steve Adams, University of Minnesota, Duluth

A few issues back in this (Univ. of Minn.) newsletter (Spring, 1990), Iver Bogen wrote about "shadow messages" or unconscious, hidden communications that qualify or contradict the overt message we intend to deliver. For a long time I was guilty of giving just such a double message that made it difficult for me to generate active participation in my larger classes. While my syllabus insisted that the course would proceed by discussions rather than lectures, and while I mentioned active learning several times the first day of class, I always conducted that first session without any opportunity for participation beyond the usual "Any questions so far?" The students assumed--understandably--that the stuff about discussion was empty rhetoric, the equivalent of politicians telling us to read their lips or administrators claiming that teaching is as important as research.

I really did want active student participation, but by the second class, when I finally got around to inviting it, the rules of the game were already established in the students' minds: he talks; we sit back and listen. It was then an uphill struggle to change those rules and to prove that I actually did wish and expect to hear from students. I remember reading somewhere that students make up their minds about a course and an instructor within the first few minutes of the first class. The initial session is not an oil painting that we can come back to at leisure for touching up; it is an art work in fast-drying plaster that needs to be shaped carefully and quickly before the whole course sets.

Stealing ideas from various sources (including workshops and individual consultation), I have used the following techniques to generate active student participation from the start, making it much easier to elicit discussion during the rest of the course:

1. Come to the classroom before the period begins to chat informally with students as they arrive. Undergraduates rarely initiate conversations with teachers, so it takes real effort to make them comfortable talking with us formally or informally. They often find it hard to converse even with peers whom they don't know. It's a bit intimidating and depressing for students and instructor alike to walk the first day into a large, cathedral atmosphere by generating a relaxed conversational buzz from the start, greeting familiar students, introducing herself to new ones, and drawing students into chats with each other.

2. Make the students realize that they count as individuals. Anonymity is one of the largest barriers to active participation. Students who feel the teacher doesn't know or care about them are less likely to participate than those whom the teacher recognizes as distinct persons with lives extending beyond the classroom. When students arrive on day one, I have them fill out a short questionnaire that asks for such information as their home town, major, career plans, and extracurricular interests. This information helps me tailor the course to individuals as we go along; it also indicates from the start that they will be more to the instructor than an identification number, generic student, or kid in the back row with the funny haircut.

3. f possible, before students arrive for the first session, arrange the classroom to encourage and facilitate active participation. Chairs lined up in neat rows and all facing the lectern indicate that the course is lecture centered. If students do participate, they address questions and comments over the backs of their classmates' heads to the instructor. Try banishing the lectern to a corner and arranging the chairs in a circle so that students can see and talk with each other during discussions. If the chairs are bolted to the floor, wander around the room so that no one place becomes privileged as the sole focus of class attention. If students must twist and turn in their chairs to find the instructor, they are more likely to address their comments to the classmates facing them as well as to her.

4. Make it clear from the start that you want and expect active participation from students, and tell them why. Indicate on the syllabus that a specific percentage of their grade will reflect their contributions to class discussions. Explain the pedagogical value of active, collaborative learning. Remind students of the wise_________________ proverb, (fill in your favorite ethnic group) "Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."

5. Start students talking several times during the first period. Begin with an easy exercise and then progress to more challenging levels of involvement. Going through the syllabus at the start of class, I pause on the first page after the comments about active participation. Here I ask the students to introduce themselves briefly to the people around them--just say hello and exchange names. This gets people speaking for the first time early on, breaks the pattern of my doing all the talking, and starts forging the community that I want to develop in the classroom. (Even when the instructor knows them, students hesitate to speak out if their classmates are total strangers. We tend to forget what it feels like to sit in a roomful of people who all seem infinitely wiser, wittier, and more confident than we and who are just waiting for us to make fools of ourselves. It is much easier to talk with people we've begun to know, however superficially.) Emphasize from the start that students will be talking with each other, not just reciting to the instructor. If the enrollment is small enough, have students pair up with someone they've never met, chat with that person for a few minutes, and then introduce her/him briefly to the rest of the group.

6. Sometime after the icebreaker, propose a substantial discussion topic for what remains of the period. This topic might address their knowledge of and preconceptions about the course content (e.g., what do you remember about Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman from high school or previous college courses? Formulate two hypotheses about these poets that we will test during the quarter). Or the topic might concern the students' own expectations and wishes for the class. (What knowledge and skills do you want to receive from this course? List five specific objectives that you hope to accomplish here by the end.) This discussion not only generates active participation from the start, but it also gives students a sense of owning the course, and it provides motives for working conscientiously during the following weeks. Since many students at this early stage are not likely to risk exposing themselves with individual contributions, ask them to form minigroups of twos, threes or fours and together to come up with a couple points to contribute. They find it much easier to work quietly with a few classmates who will share responsibility for the ideas. After sufficient time for discussion, call the class together again as a large group and poll each minigroup for one suggestion.

7. On this first day (and thereafter), ask questions that call for genuine discussion, not just right-or-wrong answers. Too often "gimmes" (guess what I'm hiding behind my back--gimme the right answer) or "Jeopardy"-style questions substitute for more substantive, thought-provoking questions; these inhibit discussion, rather than promote it.

By the end of the first class, students should know that they are expected to participate actively, and they should have done so several times in a relaxed, nonthreatening environment. Eliciting continued discussion in the next class sessions will reinforce the pattern already set and will soon make participation an easy, natural part of the course. This participation can keep us informed about what the students are actually learning, make them more responsible for their own education, and increase the likelihood that we will learn from the course ourselves.