Active Learning in the Liberal Arts

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Active Learning in the Liberal Arts

• Teagle Learning Outcomes Project
• ILS Faculty Development Program
• 17-18 May 2007

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• Day One
• Active Learning and Student Engagement

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Introduction

• Why this project? A significant body of research
  suggests that academic achievement and
  persistence are directly related to student
  engagement.
• According to Kuh et al. (2007), the impact is
  evident in first year college GPA and is greater
  for
• Students at liberal arts colleges
• Students of color

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Introduction

• Active Learning approaches deepen and enhance
  student engagement.
• The Teagle Learning Outcomes Project allows us to
  bring together UNCAs interest in augmenting
  student engagement and promoting active learning
  in the classroom.
• The Teagle Project gives us an opportunity to
  expand our commitment to assessing the impact of
  ILS for our students and faculty.

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Introduction

• Active learning and improved student engagement
  are shown to relate to other goals important to
  UNCA
• Improved learning outcomes for diverse student
  populations
• Improved rates of student retention
• Improved rates of graduation
• Development of higher order thinking skills
• Greater participation in university and community
  life

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The Teagle Learning Outcomes Project

• 4 school consortium (Agnes Scott, Converse,
  Wofford, UNC Asheville)
• 300,000 grant for 3 years
• 10,000/year to each school for faculty
  development
• Each campus studying impact of an integrative
  first-year experience on learning outcomes and
  student engagement

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UNCAs Teagle Effort

• Our integrative first year experience is the
  Freshman Colloquium, LS 179.
• Because the Teagle Project is focused on both
  student engagement and learning outcomes, it
  gives us an opportunity to assess the educational
  and advising goals of our LS 179 courses.
• We will use nationally standardized surveys of
  student behavior (the Cooperative Institutional
  Research Program instrument and the National
  Survey of Student Engagement) to measure both
  engagement and learning outcomes.

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UNCAs Teagle Effort

• We have chosen to study the following
  standardized scales
• Integrative Learning
• Higher Order Thinking
• Active Learning
• Writing
• Collaborative Learning
• Educational Gains
• Relationships (faculty-student, student-student,
  interracial, etc.)
• Advising
• We will also look at
• Retention
• Graduation Rate

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Common LSIC Objectives and Outcomes

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Our Teagle Hypotheses

• Because the Freshman Colloquium facilitates
  student engagement, students who entered UNCA
  Fall 2004 or later will be more successful on the
  following measures when compared to students who
  entered prior to Fall 2004
• Overall student engagement
• Learning outcomes (i.e. the identified scales on
  the NSSE)
• Retention
• Graduation
• Because active learning increases student
  engagement, students who participate in LS 179
  sections that include active learning are
  expected to score higher on these measures.

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Examples of Active Learning

• Service Learning
• Scaffolded Undergraduate Research
• Web-Design Projects
• Photodocumentaries
• Team-Developed PowerPoint Projects
• Student-Led Class Discussions

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Active Learning Outcomes

• Students who participate in Active Learning
  achieve higher GPAs than predicted by ACT scores.
  The effects are greatest for those with the
  lowest ACT scores and for students of color.
• Students who participate in Active Learning are
  more likely to return for the second year of
  college. This effect is more dramatic for
  students of color and for students at liberal
  arts institutions.

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Benefits of Active Learning

• Emphasizes individual responsibility
• Teaches the skill of working with others
• Requires investment of time and the development
  of time management skills
• Provides opportunity to generate a product of
  ones learning
• Requires reflective thinking

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• Day Two
• Developing an Active Learning Experience

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Developing Your Active Learning Experience Part
1 Mapping Content onto Objectives
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Developing Your Active Learning Experience

• In one or two sentences, describe the type of
  project you want your students to do.
• Why does this type of project seem appropriate to
  your LSIC goals?
• What final product would you use to evaluate
  students on this project?
• List 3-5 things you could do as an instructor to
  prepare students for successful completion of
  this project.
• 5. Describe how you will evaluate this project.
  Be specific in designing this evaluative rubric.

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References

• Kuh, G.D., Kinzie, J., and Gonyea, R.M. (2007).
  Connecting the Dots New Evidence about Why and
  How Student Engagement Matters. Presentation at
  AACU, January 2007.