Preparing Students to Participate in an Active Learning Environment.
Modell, Harold I.
Educational Consulting/Materials Development and National Resource for
Computers in Life Science Education, Seattle, WA 98115.
APStracts 2:0007S, 1995.
ABSTRACT
Most students have spent the majority of their school career in passive
learning environments in which faculty were disseminators of information, and
students were required to memorize information or use specified algorithms to
Òsolve problems.Ó In an active learning environment, students are encouraged
to engage in the process of building and testing their own mental models from
information that they are acquiring. In such a learner-centered environment,
faculty become facilitators of learning, and students become active
participants, engaging in a dialog with the their colleagues and with the
instructor. To create a successful active learning environment, both faculty
and students must make adjustments to what has been their respective
ÒtraditionalÓ roles in the classroom. For the instructor who is committed to
promoting active learning, the challenge lies in helping students understand
the necessity of becoming active colleagues in learning. This process can be
facilitated if the curriculum includes exercises to direct students' attention
to a number of issues that impact their learning. This paper describes four
such exercises designed to help students form appropriate course expectations,
recognize the need for seeking clarification when communicating, recognize the
role of personal experience in building mental models, and become familiar
with study aids for building formal models.
Received 25 August1995; accepted in final form 4 December 1996.
APS Manuscript Number S0021-5.
Article publication pending Advances in Physiology Education.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 20 March 96