If you brought a teacher back from 50 years ago and put her in a university classroom today she would be able to pick up exactly where she left off. The classroom experience has barely changed. The main difference she would notice is that in the classrooms with the most sleeping students, something called PowerPoint is being used as a sedative.
This is a pretty sad state of affairs, especially considering the fact that the state of the art in pedagogy tells us that the current system is just about the least effective way to teach. Walking into a lecture hall today is like walking into a newsroom that still uses typewriters.
Research shows that student concentration plummets within ten minutes of being in class. Results suggest that students often retain as little as 10-20% of what they hear during lecture. Some studies even indicate that students who studied material independently and attended no lectures at all performed just as well on measures of comprehension as those who attended every lecture.
There is a huge amount of investment in physical classrooms -- both previous and ongoing. The university construction industry is over a billion dollars a year in North America alone. The problem is that these classrooms are used to deliver the same ineffective experience that hasn't worked for decades.
It doesn't have to be this way.
We know a lot more about education than we did a century ago. There is an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence pointing to the benefits of "active learning." Active learning transforms the student from a passive recipient into an active participant, using strategies that make the classroom experience more collaborative. In almost every instance, in every subject matter active learning environments produce comprehension and retention rates that dance circles around passive learning environments.
But despite the resounding evidence in support of active learning its use in universities remains fairly limited, with a few notable exceptions. One reason lies in the incentive structures of universities. Professors are rewarded primarily for pioneering research rather than for great teaching. However, an equally important reason active learning has failed to take hold is a matter of cost. There are several ways to implement active learning, but ultimately it comes down to either keeping classes sizes at less than 30 students or equipping each desk with a computer. Both options are extremely costly.
One attempt at a solution to this problem has emerged in recent years. It's called "clickers" -- plastic, remote-like devices that students purchase for around $40 and bring to class. Professors bring a shoebox-sized clicker receiver and can pose questions, at which points students "click-in" their answers. The professor can then use the responses to grade the students and stimulate in-class discussion. About 10% of university classrooms now use clickers.
But in the last few years something remarkable has happened: the world has gone mobile. The percentage of undergraduate students who own some form of mobile device -- be it cell phone, laptop, or tablet -- skyrocketed to well over 95%. Over 60% of students now have smartphones and while about 87% own laptops, more own traditional cell phones. Typically, between all of these devices one can expect that in a classroom of 300 students there may be 1 or 2 that do own a connected device. Add to that the fact that a pre-paid cell phone can be purchased at a convenience store for around $25 and every student has access to a mobile device.
The students have brought technology into the classroom. This development presents an opportunity to radically transform the classroom experience for students and teachers without imposing a huge burden on the university. The devices students already bring with them to class are the ideal tools to facilitate engagement in the classroom. Yes, Apple's iBooks announcement was exciting and gave us a glimpse into the future. The future, however, where every student comes to class equipped with an iPad is still a distant one.
The classroom may be broken, but we know a lot more than we did a century ago. There is mounting evidence that active learning boosts retention and comprehension. When coupled with mobile technology, this has the potential to revolutionize the classroom experience, making it truly interactive. Studies have shown that using mobile technology in the classroom increases comprehension of complex concepts by 25%, doubles attendance rates and boosts grades by 5%. We have the technology. We have the empirical support. The first step to the future of learning is in the palms of our hands. What are we going to do about it?
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So maybe in the best classes it lasts up to 20 minutes, or half the time.
Type: "gamification" into the Huffinton Post search box.
If you brought a teacher back from 200 years ago, from the American colonies, and put him in a university classroom today, he would be able to pick up exactly where he left off.
If you brought a teacher back from the time of Charlemagne, and put him in a university classroom today, he would be able to pick up exactly where he left off.
If you brought a teacher back from Plato's Academy, and put him in a university classroom today, he would be able to pick up exactly where he left off.
And I would venture to say that if you take a teacher from today, and put her in a university classroom 50 years from now, she would be able to pick up exactly where she left off.
Because the basics of teaching haven't changed: we talk, we listen, and we respond in turn. It certainly isn't the only way to learn. People have been teaching themselves for about as long as they have been taught by others. But the difference between being taught, and learning without being taught, boils down to the conversation: one human being talking to another, and responding in turn. The more we hinder this, the more we turn the profession from "teaching the students" into "assessing how the students teach themselves."
Humanity has always directly learning in the real world among real role models, that's how we progressed for eons. In the great swatch of history the classroom model is a very recent experiment. This is one reason colleges find homeschooled and unschooled students to be miles ahead of their peers----engaged, excited, and wondering why their fellow students are so dulled to learning---because homeschoolers are closer to the roots of what has always worked. Educational research continues to confirm this.
author of Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything
I have friends that teach in different levels of education. Most of the primary education teachers tell me the same thing. It's the SYSTEM that's broken...not the classroom. 15-20 years ago when I was in grade school, I had teachers that would involve everyone classroom activities. When teachers feel handcuffed because they have to teach to a test instead of teaching for knowledge, I think it shows in the kids as well.
However, when I got to college, it took me a semester or two, but I realized that I MUST participate, study, try hard because this was going to directly affect my future. No one wants newly graduated young man or woman with a 1.8 GPA. I know there is a lot of stress on the teachers and professors, but once you hit 18 or 19 years old, there should be some expectation of maturity when it comes to wanting to learn and needing to learn.
My biggest concern is that some teachers may not be up to the task in creating a welcoming learning environment using new technology. However, the one's that can embrace it and put it to use inside the classroom (not outside), then I think we just might be on to something here...
Sure we should have every student with a computer, provided for free if they can afford it. And we should take advantage of the revolution in information and online free training available. The teach should be there to help students understand and not miss things.
But what we don't need it expensive school proprietary software to trap them in.
In fact we don't need printed school books manipulated by right wingers to include creationism, we can can save a fortune and let the kids access the real world.
I've been to those 300, 400 person lectures. The first few rows might be paying attention, but the rest are playing video games, texting their friends, or just plain sleeping. We need to harness technology to provide a stimulating environment for all the students.
Problem is- as my husband discovered when getting his degree in education, that these days the teachers are "held accountable" for everything and the students for nothing. Kid doesn't want to do his homework? They can't give them an "F" because then they'll be fired. Heck! When he sent one kid to the principal for *throwing furniture at him and other students,* the principal's only response was to send the kid right back to the classroom and inform him that if he ever sent the kid to him again, he would be fired.
So, the question becomes, how in the heck are they supposed to maintain discipline if they don't have any authority? How are they supposed to enforce the rules if they get fired for doing so?
Teachers can improve their presentations by forming small groups and encouraging creativity, exploration, and using various learning approaches for their students. Classes are often considered torture chambers by students when the faculty do not know them and relate their goals to the whole person in the context of the social & natural environments. Being mindful of what state of mind their students are in when they arrive, is a great starting point. For example, I always introduce breathing exercises to strengthen and support the emotional systems that produce energy or oxygen for all of my student's health related systems. Come on teachers, stop torturing our students and making it so difficult for them to enjoy the teaching-learning experience. Learning can be a great adventure and source of courage, confidence building, and strength for curious human beings....stop putting them to sleep!
However, in both environments students were expected to listen and absorb, and to participate. In other words, to be responsible for their own state of mind when entering the classroom, and to behave accordingly. If a student's computer or cell phone is more interesting, there is really nothing you can do to persuade them to pay attention. In that case, their state of mind is likely impenetrable and impossible to approach under any circumstance.
Yes, learning is a great adventure, but the onus is as much on the student to open themselves to material and the expectation to produce a response as it is on the professor to provide an appropriate atmosphere. I say this having spent many days in lecture, sitting behind rows of people with their laptops open, shopping, watching YouTube, emailing--essentially doing anything but showing an interest in the contents of the lecture. It's an attitude I find it extremely difficult to imagine as acceptable in the workplace, post-graduation...
If we could get all the so called "experts" out of our classrooms and doing their busy bodying someplace else, we might start repairing the extraordinary damage inflicted upon public education by the deformers and no nothings.