Cornell U Adopts Active Learning
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY has transformed two introductory courses into active learning classes in an effort to boost student engagement.
Students
in the classes read assigned passages or watch instructor-created
videos before class and then complete a pre-lecture quiz. During class
time, students work in small groups to complete activities designed to
reinforce the material they studied before class. The small groups stay
the same all semester, so students have the opportunity to develop
friendships.
In 2009, some professors in the department "started
organizing their classes by modules, adding more online resources and
incorporating more team teaching," according to a report in the Cornell
Chronicle, and those changes led to the implementation of active
learning in the past year. The university's College of Arts and Sciences has also embarked on a five-year pilot project to help science
professors implement this "flipped classroom" model, where students
watch recorded lectures outside of class and then spend class time
engaged in more active learning.
The Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology has implemented active learning in an introductory
class on evolutionary biology and another introductory class on
ecology. Introduction to Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity is a
required course for biology majors in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences
and of Agriculture and Life Sciences and about 250 students register
for the course each fall.
Margaret (Cissy) Ballen, a postdoctoral
researcher in EEB who helped develop learning activities for the class,
compared student learning outcomes from the new active learning classes
with outcomes from the class the year before, which was taught using
traditional methods. According to the Cornell Chronicle, Ballen's
evaluation of the active learning classes found that they have led to
"greater classroom confidence and learning outcomes."
Kelly
Zamudio, one of the faculty members teaching the class, said she would like to
see more classes implement active learning methods, particularly in
classes such as mammology, herpetology and entomology, and she's "also
interested in how active learning can be applied to online classes,"
according to the Cornell Chronicle.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].