Cooperative Inquiry-Based Learning

1. Cooperative Inquiry-Based Learning Karl A. Smith Engineering Education – Purdue University Civil Engineering - University of Minnesota ksmith@umn.edu http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith Middle Tennessee State University March 2007

2. Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology – National Science Foundation, 1996 Goal B All students have access to supportive, excellent undergraduate education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology, and all students learn these subjects by direct experience with the methods and processes of inquiry. Recommend that SME&T faculty: Believe and affirm that every student can learn, and model good practices that increase learning; starting with the student=s experience, but have high expectations within a supportive climate; and build inquiry, a sense of wonder and the excitement of discovery, plus communication and teamwork, critical thinking, and life-long learning skills into learning experiences. 2

3. Cooperative Inquiry-Based Learning • Please reflect on when and how to promote learning through cooperative inquiry • Jot down some of your ideas • Turn to the person next to you • Introduce yourself • Share thoughts on promoting learning through student-student interaction 3

4. Advance Organizer “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.@ David Ausubel - Educational psychology: A cognitive approach, 1968. 4

5. Lila M. Smith

6. Pedago-pathologies Amnesia Fantasia Inertia Lee Shulman – MSU Med School – PBL Approach (late 60s – early 70s), Currently President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of College Teaching Shulman, Lee S. 1999. Taking learning seriously. Change, 31 (4), 11-17.

7. What do we do about these pathologies? – Lee Shulman Activity Reflection Collaboration Passion Combined with generative content and the creation of powerful learning communities Shulman, Lee S. 1999. Taking learning seriously. Change, 31 (4), 11-17. 7

8. Lila M. Smith

9. Pedagogies of Engagement 9

10. Cooperative Learning is instruction that involves people working in teams to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that involve both positive interdependence (all members must cooperate to complete the task) and individual and group accountability (each member is accountable for the complete final outcome). Key Concepts •Positive Interdependence •Individual and Group Accountability •Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction •Teamwork Skills •Group Processing

11. Key Features of Cooperative Learning Active/Interactive Cooperative Personal (before professional) Structure (before task) Knee-to-Knee, Eye-to-Eye/Space/Focus Challenging task (worthy of group effort) Students talking through the material (cognitive rehearsal) Learning groups are small (2-5) and assigned Heterogeneous Your own cooperative group 11

12. Pedagogies of Engagement: Classroom-Based Practices http://www.asee.org/about/publications/jee/upload/2005jee_sample.htm 12

13. Inquiry and the National Science Standards • Learners are engaged in scientifically oriented questions • Learners give priority to evidence, which allows them to develop and evaluate explanations • Learners formulate explanations from evidence • Learners evaluate their explanations in light of alternative explanations • Learners communicate and justify their proposed explanations 13

14. The Students Explain1 • In trying to make their thoughts clear for other people, student achieve greater clarity for themselves. • The students themselves determine what it is they want to understand. • People come to depend on themselves. • Students recognize the powerful experience of having their ideas taken seriously, rather than simply screened for correspondence to what the teacher wanted. • Students learn an enormous amount from each other. • Learners come to recognize knowledge as a human construction, since they have constructed their own knowledge and know that they have. • 1Duckworth, E. 1987. The having of wonderful ideas" & other essays on teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.

15. Kolb=s Experiential Learning Cycle Concrete Experience Testing implications of concepts in new situations Observation and Reflections Formulation of abstract concepts and generalizations

16. Learning Cycle • Engage • Explore • Explain • Evaluate

17. Problem-Based Learning START Apply it Problem posed Learn it Identify what we need to know Normative Professional Curriculum: 1. Teach the relevant basic science, 2. Teach the relevant applied science, and 3. Allow for a practicum to connect the science to actual practice. Subject-Based Learning START Given problem to illustrate how to use it Told what we need to know Learn it

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19. These problems are endemic to all institutions of education, regardless of level. Children sit for 12 years in classrooms where the implicit goal is to listen to the teacher and memorize the information in order to regurgitate it on a test. Little or no attention is paid to the learning process, even though much research exists documenting that real understanding is a case of active restructuring on the part of the learner. Restructuring occurs through engagement in problem posing as well as problem solving, inference making and investigation, resolving of contradictions, and reflecting. These processes all mandate far more active learners, as well as a different model of education than the one subscribed to at present by most institutions. Rather than being powerless and dependent on the institution, learners need to be empowered to think and to learn for themselves. Thus, learning needs to be conceived of as something a learner does, not something that is done to a learner. Fosnot, C.T. (1989). Enquiring teachers, enquiring learners. NY: Teachers College Press.

20. Constructivist Learning • Constructivism is not a theory about teaching. It's a theory about knowledge and learning...the theory defines knowledge as temporary, developmental, socially and culturally mediated, and thus, non-objective. • Learning from this perspective is understood as a self-regulated process of resolving inner cognitive conflicts that often become apparent through concrete experience, collaborative discourse, and reflection. • Five overarching principles of constructivist pedagogy: • Posing problems of emerging relevance to learners; • Structuring learning around "big ideas" or primary concepts; • Seeking and valuing students' points of view; • Adapting curriculum to address students' suppositions; • Assessing student learning in the context of teaching. • --Catherine Twomey Fosnot

21. National Research Council Reports: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (1999). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (2000). Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment (2001). The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education (2002). Chapter 6 – Creating High-Quality Learning Environments: Guidelines from Research on How People Learn NCEE Report Rethinking and redesigning curriculum, instruction and assessment: What contemporary research and theory suggests. (2006). http://www.skillscommission.org/commissioned.htm 21

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24. Designing Learning Environments Based on HPL (How People Learn) 24

25. Some Important Principles About Learning and Understanding The first important principle about how people learn is that students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works which include beliefs and prior knowledge acquired through various experiences. The second important principle about how people learn is that to develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. A third critical idea about how people learn is that a “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them. Jim Pellegrino – Rethinking and redesigning curriculum, instruction and assessment: What contemporary research and theory suggests 25

26. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom • Informal Cooperative Learning Groups • Formal Cooperative Learning Groups • Cooperative Base Groups See Cooperative Learning Handout (CL College-804.doc) 26

27. Formal Cooperative Learning – Types of Tasks • Jigsaw – Learning new conceptual/procedural material • 2. Peer Composition or Editing • 3. Reading Comprehension/Interpretation • 4. Problem Solving, Project, or Presentation • 5. Review/Correct Homework • 6. Constructive Academic Controversy • 7. Group Tests

28. Challenged-Based Learning • Problem-based learning • Case-based learning • Project-based learning • Learning by design • Inquiry learning • Anchored instruction John Bransford, Nancy Vye and Helen Bateman. Creating High-Quality Learning Environments: Guidelines from Research on How People Learn 28

29. Problem-Based Learning (PBL)-- Small Group Self-Directed Problem Based Learning -- Problem-based learning is the learning that results from the process of working toward the understanding or resolution of a problem. The problem is encounteredfirst in the learning process. (Barrows and Tamblyn, 1980) Core Features of PBL • Learning is student-centered • Learning occurs in small student groups • Teachers are facilitators or guides • Problems are the organizing focus and stimulus for learning • Problems are the vehicle for the development of clinical problem-solving skills • New information is acquired through self-directed learning 29

30. Problem Based Cooperative Learning Format TASK: Solve the problem(s) or Complete the project. INDIVIDUAL: Estimate answer. Note strategy. COOPERATIVE: One set of answers from the group, strive for agreement, make sure everyone is able to explain the strategies used to solve each problem. EXPECTED CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS: Everyone must be able to explain the strategies used to solve each problem. EVALUATION: Best answer within available resources or constraints. INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: One member from your group may be randomly chosen to explain (a) the answer and (b) how to solve each problem. EXPECTED BEHAVIORS: Active participating, checking, encouraging, and elaborating by all members. INTERGROUP COOPERATION: Whenever it is helpful, check procedures, answers, and strategies with another group. 30

31. http://www.udel.edu/pbl/ 31

32. It could well be that faculty members of the twenty-first century college or university will find it necessary to set aside their roles as teachers and instead become designers of learning experiences, processes, and environments. James Duderstadt, 1999 We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment. Whether we permit chance environments to do the work, or whether we design environments for the purpose makes a great difference. John Dewey, 1906 32