Ep. 050: That Active Learning Thing
We celebrate our 50th episode with a discussion about THAT phrase… the buzz word of buzz words in the college teaching profession: active learning. We always hear about it, we often talk about it… but are we really doing it? Jim and Claire unpack this ubiquitous phrase and explore examples of what it actually looks like. They highlight the three different components that make active learning "active" and the different ways of introducing students to the trio. Along the way, you'll hear some metaphors being tortured and a potential jeremiad about ham-and-pineapple pizza… but all in the name of helping our students to learn!
Listen to this episode
Show Notes
Here are some additional resources:
- Claire mentioned Fink's book on course design in this episode. We devoted a deeper look into that and other top books on college teaching as part of our trip to Claire's Bookshelf (Ep. 10).
- Our colleague Dana Karraker talked in depth about the work of Paulo Freire in our Community of Learners episode (Ep. 08).
- We've talked a lot of about reflection as a path to growth for both students and teachers. This episode is a good place to start (Ep. 026).
References
Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.
A captioned version of this episode is available through this YouTube playlist.
Download a transcript of this episode in Adobe PDF format.