scholarly journals An Active Learning Seminar and Sequential Research Project Experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J Fariss
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Original Research Paper ◽  
Course Material ◽  
Shared Structure

I present two key components from a course designed to introduce undergraduate students to human rights: a set of group-based active learning tasks and an individual-based sequential research project. In the classroom, active learning opportunities allow students to creatively and collectively engage with course material. The sequential research project is a step-by-step guide for creating an original research paper. For the two components, the students draw from a set of primary source documents combined with additional readings to build knowledge in the classroom. With this new knowledge, the students generate ideas and content that they use to write a sequence of research essays about that course topic outside the classroom. In this manuscript, I describe the shared structure of the two learning components, discuss details about each of the sequential essays, present assessment data, and provide suggestions about how to adapt the course to other social science topics.

scholarly journals Contrasting Cases: Students’ Experiences in an Active-Learning Biology Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. ar33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa B. Wiltbank ◽  
Kurt R. Williams ◽  
Lauren Marciniak ◽  
Jennifer L. Momsen
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
Contrasting Cases ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Biology Class ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Regular Time

In this qualitative study, we examined the process of active learning from the perspective of undergraduate students in a high-enrollment introductory biology class. Eight students participated in a series of five interviews throughout the semester that examined their experiences during and after class. Grades were collected for each student at regular time points throughout the semester. Here, we present in-depth case studies of four students who described profoundly different responses to the same in-class learning tasks. We particularly highlight variation in students’ self-reported engagement, as engagement is thought to be a key element of successful active learning. Finally, we map each student’s self-reported engagement and the grades that he or she received. In each case, we found that grades failed to capture some aspects of the active-learning experience that students found important.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles ◽  
Language Needs

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

Auditing the Systems Understanding Aid Project: An Integrative Assignment for Accounting Students

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Swanger ◽  
Beth H. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Work Environments ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
External Work ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Independent Auditors ◽  
Course Integration

ABSTRACT Accounting educators strive to prepare graduates for work in their chosen field. Various teaching methods can be employed to best accomplish this goal. One valuable tool is the use of active learning tasks that simulate external work environments. This paper describes the collaboration between an AIS and an Auditing professor who used an integrative task that spanned their two classes over two semesters. The authors had their AIS students complete Arens and Ward's Systems Understanding Aid (SUA) project (Arens & Ward, 2008). The following semester, students in the auditing class audited the records and financials that had been generated by students the previous semester. The project was designed to facilitate course integration and teamwork by having groups of students play the role of corporate accountants, then act as independent auditors.

scholarly journals Measuring supports from learning assistants that promote engagement in active learning: evaluating a novel social support instrument

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dania Hernandez ◽  
Gema Jacomino ◽  
Uma Swamy ◽  
Krista Donis ◽  
Sarah L. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Supports ◽  
Informational Support ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
Appraisal Support ◽  
Instrument Measuring ◽  
Support Students

Abstract Background Active learning supports student performance, but can be challenging to implement in large courses. The Learning Assistant (LA) Program is a growing intervention to support students in large active learning classrooms. This program places advanced undergraduates who have training in pedagogical methods in active learning classrooms to interact with and support students during in-class activities. LAs increase student performance, but the mechanism behind this is still unclear. Social support is a promising framework to help elucidate the types and extent of assistance LAs provide to students and begin exploring the “how” behind LAs effectiveness. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument measuring undergraduate students’ perceptions of the social supports for active learning available to them in the classroom. This instrument was based on both the broader social support literature and the literature on what factors encourage students to engage deeply in active learning. To provide initial evidence of validity, the instrument was completed in six sections of General Chemistry I at one R1 university. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to determine the internal structure of the instrument. Then the instrument’s relationship to engagement in active learning was evaluated as another form of validity evidence. Results These analyses best supported a three-factor instrument that included five items representing supportive feedback provided during active learning (appraisal support), eight items representing emotional support during active learning, and six items representing the communications of norms and values related to active learning (informational support). All three factors were individually correlated with three measures of engagement. In regression analyses with all three factors measured together, only informational support predicted changes in two of the three measures of engagement. Conclusions This study supports the use of the Perception of Social Supports for Active Learning (PSSALI) instrument to understand students’ perceptions of the supports they are receiving to engage in active learning in chemistry courses. One implication of this work is that in order to increase engagement, learning assistants should clearly communicate the value of active learning and the classroom norm of active participation.

scholarly journals Co-production for or against the university: student loneliness and the commodification of impact in COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Cooper ◽  
Charlotte Jones
Keyword(s):  
Systems Of Care ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

PurposeThis paper explores the dissonance between co-production and expectations of impact in a research project on student loneliness over the 2019/2020 academic year. Specific characteristics of the project – the subject matter, interpolation of a global respiratory pandemic, informal systems of care that arose among students and role of the university in providing the context and funding for the research – brought co-production into heightened tension with the instrumentalisation of project outputs.Design/methodology/approachThe project consisted of a series of workshops, research meetings and mixed-methods online journalling between 2019 and 2020. This paper is primarily a critical reflection on that research, based on observations by and conversations between the authors, together with discourse analysis of research data.FindingsThe authors argue that co-producing research with students on university contexts elevates existing tensions between co-production and institutional valuations of impact, that co-production with students who had experienced loneliness made necessary space for otherwise absent support and care, that the responsibility to advocate for evidence and co-researchers came into friction with how the university felt the research could be useful and that each of these converging considerations are interconnected symptoms of the ongoing marketisation of HE.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel analysis of co-production, impact and higher education in the context of an original research project with specific challenges and constraints. It is a valuable contribution to methodological literatures on co-production, multidisciplinary research into student loneliness and reflexive work on the difficult uses of evidence in university contexts.

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