I've been doing a fair bit of literature review work the last couple of days, mostly for some educational research papers I'm writing up. It's kind of interesting that completely by accident I decided to try out some collaborative small-group work stuff in my units this semester, when it is just about to become a focus (well sort of) within science and tech as well as the engineering faculty at QUT.
We are building this huge new science and technology precinct which is supposed to feature some so-called new age teaching and learning spaces (think new GP library, new S block levels, new O303a). Lot's of collaborative workspace, flexible room setups and (re)movable furniture. etc. When I saw the new level 4 S block lecture room with the glass walls, I wasn't impressed...in fact, I'm still not. It actually isn't any different so far as I can tell, besides the glass walls, from what it was when I was an undergrad 12 years ago. The furniture may even be identical.
But that's not the point... the point is I finally thought a little bit about what else I could do in their besides standing up and talking to people doing examples. The room in question has those large two-student flat desks that you can move around just like any old table. So I thought, bugger it, I'm going to get people to talk with each other and work on problems on purpose (rather than because that's what they decide to do). Another fortuitous (or not) thing was the closure of the students work room in O block. There wasn't really as easy an opportunity any more for students to just sit around and work on their maths with each other. In a sense, I tried to mimic that atmosphere, probably not very successfully, in my collaborative classroom activities.
Personally, I think we over lecture. 3 hours a week isn't really necessary. That doesn't mean I don't want to spend the 3 hrs teaching or in the classroom, but just that I don't think I need to be talking up the front all the time. I think in many cases, a 1 hour overview is more appropriate and then the remaining 3 hours could be spent in structured, small-group learning activities. What do I mean by structured? Well, not just a sheet of questions... more like worksheets that guide the students through constructing the ideas for themselves. You can't go too far off track because the guiding worksheet always brings you back to the path, but at the same time you would need to draw on your prior knowledge to figure out where to go and what to do.
This is also, in a sense, what I tried out with my collaborative activities. A couple of them were actually used as the introduction to a topic. THat is, I didn't teach the topic first, I got students to work on a structured, small-group worksheet. That probably seems weird and unfair...but it's actually quite good I think. It allows each student to build their own concepts and to arrive at a place in the progression of learning about something before I come in and sterilise their viewpoint with that of the so-called expert. I think it is even empowering to some people when they realise they can learn by themselves and that anything I provide is just reinforcement or guidance.
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