ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND AGRICULTURE

 GROUP ASSIGNMENT ENTITLED WITH USING ACTIVE LEARNING

APPROACHES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Group memebers Akinaw Wagari Berihun Dires Tesfaye Abraha

December 18, 2014

Bishoftu, Ethiopia

Outlines

• Introduction

• Active learning approaches

• Major characteristics of active learning Akinaw W.

• Importance of active learning

• Obstacles

• Solutions

• Traditional approach vs active learning Berihun D.

• Active learning strategies in Universities and college

• Active learning in Ethiopia’s higher education

• Conclusion Tesfaye A.

1. INTRODUCTION

• Active learning is an educational process where students become vigorously engaged in assimilating the material being taught rather than absorbing it passively in a lecture format.

• It is the process of discovery in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher. Sometimes it is also called as cooperative learning.

• Student involvement refers to the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience.

• They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to experiences, apply it to their daily lives and must make what they learn part of themselves.

Cont…

• True learning involves figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think.

• Using active learning does not mean abandoning the lecture format, but it does take class time.

• For some lecture-based classes, using active learning may be a bit more challenging because of class size or room limitations such as fixed seating.

• In general, a growing body of research has made it clear, however, that the overall quality of teaching and learning is improved when students have ample opportunities to clarify, question, apply and consolidate new knowledge.

Objectives

General objective: -

To highlight basic concepts of active learning approaches.

Specific objective: -

To indicate the situation of active learning approaches in Ethiopian’s higher educations.

2. ACTIVE LEARNING APPROACHES

2.1. Background

Active learning was popularized in the 1990s by its appearance on the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). It relates to the three learning domains referred to as knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA).

Active learning engages students in two aspects –> doing things and thinking about the things they are doing.

In traditional education methodologies, teachers direct the learning process and students assume a receptive role in their education.

Cont…

Student-centered learning means inverting the traditional teacher-centered understanding of the learning process and putting students at the center of the learning process.

In Ethiopia active learning approach started since 2003, as the Government of Ethiopia has officially opted for a seemingly ambitious reform in the structure and content of teacher education and learner-centered learning has become the buzzword for the reform.

2.2. Major characteristics associated with active learning

• Students are involved in more than passive listening

• Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing)

• There is less emphasis placed on information transmission and greater emphasis placed on developing student skills

• There is greater emphasis placed on the exploration of attitudes and values

• Student motivation is increased (especially for adult learners)

• Students can receive immediate feedback from their instructor

• Students are involved in higher order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)

2.3. Importance of active learning

• Students are more likely to find personally meaningful problem solutions or interpretations.

 

• Students receive more frequent and more immediate feedback.

• Students increase their self-confidence and self-reliance.

• For most learners, it is more motivating to be active than passive.

• A task that you have done yourself or as part of a group is more highly valued.

• Student conceptions of knowledge change, which in turn has implications for cognitive development.

• Students who work together on active learning tasks learn to work with other people of different backgrounds and attitudes.

2.4. Obstacles or barriers prevent us from using active learning strategies

• You cannot cover as much course content in the time available;

• Devising active learning strategies takes too much pre-class preparation;

• Large class sizes prevents implementation of active learning strategies;

• Most instructors think of themselves as being good lecturers;

• There is a lack of materials or equipment needed to support active learning approaches;

• Students resist non-lecture approaches.

2.5. Solutions to overcome such obstacles

• Active learning strategies reduces the amount of available lecture time that can be devoted to content coverage.

• The amount of pre-class preparation time needed to implement active learning strategies will be greater than that needed to "recycle old lectures;" it will not necessarily take any more time than that needed to create thorough and thoughtful new lectures.

• Large classes can be divided into small groups for discussion activities, writing assignments can be read and critiqued by students instead of the instructor…

• Though lecturing is potentially a useful means of transmitting information, teaching does not equal learning.

Cont…

• The lack of materials or equipment needed to support active learning can be solved by asking students to summarize in writing the material they have read or to form pairs to evaluate statements or assertions (i.e., all active learning approaches don’t require material).

With explicit instruction in how to actively participate and learn in less-traditional modes, students soon come to favor the new approaches.

2.6. Active learning strategies in college and university courses

Many scholars, researchers and national reports have discussed that employing active learning instructional strategies can maximize student learning in the college or university.

The lecture method is a relatively poor instructional approach for maintaining student attention. Research findings suggest that student concentration during lectures begins to decline after 10-15 minutes.

Lecturing involves the transfer of information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the student without passing through the minds of either.

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments and spitting out answers.

2.7. Active learning vs traditional lectures

Traditional lectures

• Instructor talks & students listen with minimal interruptions

• Student concentration can be observed dropping after 10-15 minutes

• Instructor‘s questions are largely rhetorical

• Student-to-student talk is discouraged

• Students listen and take notes independently

• Student comprehension during the lecture is not monitored explicitly

• Student absenteeism often is quite high

• Examples include: lecture methods, demonstration

Active learning

• Instructor talks with periodic pauses for structured activities

• As student concentration begins to wane, a short structured in-class activity is assigned

• Student-to-student talk is encouraged

• Students often work with partners or in groups

• Student comprehension during the lecture is assessed directly

• class room discussion, think-pair share, collaborative learning group, student debate, a reaction to video and learning by teaching one-self

3. ACTIVE LEARNING IN ETHIOPIAN’S HIGHER EDUCATION

A country’s progress in education is absolutely essential for the country’s sustainable economy growth, good governance, environmental protection; improvement in maternal and child health; and political stability.

Education needs to meet minimum quality standards in terms of:

a. Minimum inputs (facilities, teaching materials, qualified teachers, parent and community support),

b. Processes (effective leadership, monitoring and evaluation, accountability, community participation, effective teaching-learning and assessment) and

c. Outputs (high student learning, societal and individual returns) to successfully contribute to the economic growth of a country.

Cont…

• The quality of education is related both to student outcomes and to “improved environments and educational aids which lead to detectable gains in knowledge, skills and values acquired by students.

• Although the current level of educational quality in Ethiopia’s Universities is not determined through standardized testing when evaluated based on the minimum inputs and processes that quality education requires.

• A report by the World Bank indicates that three points of information combine to raise the possibility that educational quality may presently be at risk.

Cont…

• First, Ethiopian higher education system is in a state of rapid expansion and it is always difficult for any nation to maintain quality standards in midst rapid enllorment expansion.

• Second, the current level of spending per student on academic expenses is quiet low from both a regional and international perspective.

• Third, the proportion of academic staff with PhD Degrees has been declining and will probably decline further as a rapid enllorment expansion proceeds.

Cont…

• Improving the quality of education through improving the teaching learning process is assumed the cost-effective than through improving system input which is more difficult for countries like Ethiopia.

• The learner-centered pedagogy is emphasized in Ethiopia through the Teacher Education System Overall (TESO), just recently in 1994 and described to be an effective subject delivery mode as compared to the classical lecture method.

4. CONCLUSIONS

• In conclusion, based on neurobiological understandings and much research, it is evident that active learning has a more beneficial effect than passive learning on individuals because it creates new neural networks and synapses.

• The experience of developed countries tells us that education has lion share among the factors that contribute for the development of a country.

• The learner-centered approach is by far preferred over the teacher-centered approach to produce self-directed, self-initiated learners and leaders who possess excellent problem solving abilities.

• Since quality of education is a product of stable and solid leadership, sound and conducive polices, great concern and sustained commitments are vitally important.

 

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