Active Learning in the Middle Grades Classroom

References

Introduction

The Voices of Students

I have had the wonderful opportunity to talk about teaching and learning with the different stakeholders in education as I spent my career in a middle school classroom, a school district office, and a university setting. I noticed that academics often talk to other academics about theory and research, teachers talk to other teachers about the daily struggles of teaching, and students talk to other students about what is boring and what is interesting in the classroom. This book incorporates all of those voices—different groups of people valuing middle grades education from different perspectives. There are the voices of academics who have spent much time examining theory and doing research to help discover effective teaching approaches. There are the voices of the many excellent teachers implementing effective teaching strategies every day in middle school classrooms across America. And finally, there are the voices of middle grades students who have much to say about what they do and do not like and how they learn best.

Because, ultimately, it is middle grades students we are trying to engage, we begin by listening to their voices first as I share information gleaned from my interviews of seventh graders about the types of instructional activities they enjoy and what helps them learn. These are not fictitious students or children of rocket scientists, but typical young adolescents. As such, it will not surprise you to learn that they had many opinions, and they were not afraid to express those opinions.

On Worksheets…

It would be hard to imagine how many trees have been cut over the last 100 years so middle grades students can complete worksheets. Admittedly, all worksheets are not created equal. Some require students to be actively involved in their learning, while some just ask students to mindlessly recopy information from the notes they just copied from a PowerPoint. Although I do not advocate abolishing all worksheets, I do suggest that we do fewer. Middle grades students would celebrate such a change—they are tired of the worksheets.

I don’t like worksheets, they don’t help you learn; they are like a punishment. (Xavier)

Not surprisingly the most common reason the students gave for not liking worksheets was that they were boring.

No, I do not like worksheets. I don’t like worksheets because they are boring and they waste my time. (Camila).

However, some students had insight into the value and purpose of completing worksheets. They were able to identify different types and purposes of worksheets.

I believe that worksheets are helpful to a certain extent because writing things helps me remember, but after a while, it becomes more about getting the right answer to get a good grade instead of knowing what you’re writing about. (Shaniqua)

I don’t like when we have to do those worksheets where you find the answers in the textbooks because most of the time we aren’t really reading it; we are just looking for the answers. We write the answer down, and we don’t think twice about what we are reading and just write the answer. (Ashley)

I don’t like worksheets and I don’t believe they help me learn. They help me remember. (Seung)

Although the students were not big fans of worksheets, they did have lots of ideas about active learning.

I want my teachers to do fun activities because I don’t want to do boring activities all period. (Deon)

On Group Work…

I wish we would do more group work so that we could communicate and share our thoughts. (Ryan)

[I wish we could do more] partner work, so we can understand things from a different perspective. Also, we can take some things or methods that can help us with work from our partners. (Zoe)

I like group work because you don’t have to stay quiet while you’re working, and you can also ask if someone got a different answer. (Gabriela)

Yes, students understand it more when people of their own age help. (Keisha)

On Projects…

I wish our teachers would have us do more projects because I think projects are a chance to show teachers what you’re made of. (Miya)

Projects are good, because you usually have to do a bit of research which you can learn from. (Nathan)

I like doing projects because when you look up information it could be something you never knew. (Emma)

Projects help you learn more about something you did not know before. Also it lets your teachers see if you are listening in class. (Lilly)

On Games…

I think games are a great way to learn because games are fun and enjoyable. I am more likely to pay attention to something I enjoy. (Antwan)

I wish teachers would have us play more games because it makes learning more fun and it helps me not zone out. (Lashonda)

I believe that we should be able to play more games in the classroom because it keeps us interactive. We don’t know that we are learning—we are just learning. And it is making us have fun while the teacher is doing stuff. (Miguel)

On Presentations…

Yes I do think we should do presentations, I think it’s fun for everybody to see how hard you worked to make something and then say it out loud in front of the classroom. (Luke)

I think presentations help us to learn and to become less nervous because you’re getting used to speaking in front of people. (Aisha)

I like presentations because presentations get you used to talking in front of people. And like when you go to college, you aren’t going to go through college and high school without doing presentations. So, if you know how to do it now, it’s going to be easier in college, and that’s when it actually matters a lot. (Dallas)

I agree with Matt’s approach. He suggests a balanced approach to instruction that involves multiple learning approaches:

I think that both ways are good. Doing the activities and worksheets because on the worksheet you can visualize it but it is more fun to play with activities. I like both. Just put them together. (Matt)

Of course, learning is not just about having fun with the chance of gaining knowledge in the meantime. Learning is the top priority; if fun happens in addition, that is icing on the cake. Experts agree with these seventh graders on the importance of active learning. The first chapter discusses the many good reasons educational theorists give for active learning. After discussing the rationale for active learning in the middle grades classroom, the book introduces a framework for thinking about it. But the majority of the book is filled with practical strategies that make active learning doable in the classroom. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of how to overcome the many obstacles and barriers that tend to get in the way of implementing active learning.

Part One

Introduction

The Active Learning Framework

The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) recommends that middle grades students be engaged in active, purposeful learning (National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2010). This section lays out a framework for active learning, but it is important to not lose the word purposeful in the discussion. The middle grades students you just heard from were interested in active learning mainly because it was fun. As education professionals, we are only too aware that there is too much content to explore and too many thinking skills to develop just to have a good time. It is fine if fun happens as a by-product, but the goal is learning. The emphasis of active learning is the purposeful part. As the teacher, you need to be clear on the learning purpose for every instructional activity in your precious class time.

Three dimensions of active learning are important for young adolescents who learn best if they are intellectually, socially, and physically active as they are learning. Although they need not necessarily be engaged in all three of these dimensions at the same time each is important to their learning. Part One explores the Active Learning Framework shown below and explains the rationale for each of these dimensions that are critical to the successful learning of young adolescents.

Chapter 1

What is Active Learning?

Teachers open the door; you enter by yourself.

~Chinese proverb

John Dewey describes learning as something an individual does when he studies. It is an active, personally conducted affair (1924, p. 390). There is a difference between learning facts and learning to do something with those facts. If we expect students to apply the knowledge they are learning in our classrooms, then we must help them develop the intellectual tools and problem-solving skills necessary to practice doing something with what they are learning (Michael, 2006). Students learn by becoming involved (Astin, 1985). When we involve students in learning activities that require them to discuss, question, clarify, and apply, they will retain the content we want them to remember better. Through active learning students are more likely to learn how to ask meaningful questions and become empowered to become lifelong learners.

This chapter begins by laying a foundation for teachers who are interested in using active learning. Active learning is defined and the theory behind it is discussed. Also discussed is what the research tells us about young adolescent development as a rationale for doing active learning with middle graders. Finally, the framework for thinking about active learning from three viewpoints—intellectual activity, social activity, and physical activity—will be explained.

Active Learning Defined

Active learning is a term that has been used often in educational literature, but not specifically defined. As educators we have almost taken a you know it when you see it approach to defining active learning. Consider the following range of classroom activities. At what point in the continuum shown in Figure 1 do the strategies become active learning strategies?

My answer would be… It depends. In this example, it depends mostly on the level of questions asked. Simply recalling or answering factual questions on the worksheet does not require much active learning. Students refer to their notes, whether or not they are working in small groups. But if students answer higher level questions that require them to compare and contrast different ideas or to argue different points of view, then active learning might occur further to the left.

The Greenwood Dictionary of Education defines active learning as:

The process of having students engage in some activity that forces them to reflect upon ideas and how they are using those ideas. Requiring students to regularly assess their own degree of understanding and skill at handling concepts or problems in a particular discipline.

The attainment of knowledge by participating or contributing. The process of keeping students mentally, and often physically, active in their learning through activities that involve them in gathering information, thinking, and problem solving. (Collins & O’Brien, 2003, p. 5)

Some key ideas fall within this definition. Student engagement is important and so is the idea of active participation. Students learn more if they are actively engaged in critical thinking and applying the content they are learning. Students must reflect on their own understanding and expand that understanding through a variety of means including discussions and explorations with classmates.

We simply need to give students more time to dig beneath the surface, to grapple with the subject matter, and to make their own sense out of things. If we do, chances are they will be more likely to retain and use what we do give them. (Meyers & Jones, 1993, p. 14)

Bonwell and Eison (1991) offer some general characteristics of active learning in the classroom:

•Students are involved in more than listening.

•Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information and more on developing students’ skills.

•Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation).

•Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing).

•Greater emphasis is placed on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and values. (p. 1)

In other words, students must do more than listen, more than passively receive knowledge from either the teacher, a video, or the text, and they must do more than regurgitate pieces of information. Simply put, active learning means that students are doing things and that they are thinking about what they are doing (Bonwell & Eison, 1991, p. v).

Active vs. Passive Learning

One method of defining a term is to define what it is not. Often when educators think of the idea of active learning, they think of it in contrast to passive learning. Active learning conjures up an image of a classroom of excited students doing activities in small groups, while passive learning conjures up an image of rows of students facing the teacher who quietly and dutifully listen to her great wisdom. But rather than define active learning in terms of contrasting pictures in our minds, which could vary from person to person, we will identify three significant differences in the ideas of active learning and passive learning: (1) Active learning empowers the student to apply the knowledge that is learned, while passive learning imparts knowledge to the learner; (2) Active learning engages the student in higher-order thinking, while passive learning engages the student in factual learning; and (3) Active learning is student-centered, while passive learning is teacher-centered.

Empowering with Knowledge vs. Imparting Knowledge

Using a metaphor can sometimes help to describe a concept. There are various metaphors that people have used to describe passive learning that are rather appropriate and seem to be accurate descriptions of what is occurring between teachers and students in the passive learning approach. Passive learning is like downloading a PDF file from the Internet to your computer. You can download the file without reading it or thinking about it. You can dutifully save the file in a folder where you know you can retrieve it later if necessary and still not understand anything in the file. Richard Tiberius (1986) referred to passive learning pedagogy as transmission with the emphasis on the efficient flow of information down the pipeline (p. 148). In other words, teachers are viewed as effective if they can clearly, accurately, and efficiently transmit information to students. Paulo Freire (2001) talked about the banking concept of education. He believed that the way teacher and student relationships normally operated was similar to the teacher making deposits of information and students collecting those deposits, storing and cataloguing them, and retrieving them when necessary. But Friere felt that a much higher purpose should change this misguided system. He proposed:

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. (p. 72)

Friere’s ideas were along the lines of active learning. An active learning approach empowers learners, rather than making them passive recipients of deposits of information. In an active learning approach, students are empowered to uncover information on their own using a variety of resources, to grapple with new information until it makes sense, and to create new ideas using the information they have learned. Students also learn the tools that empower them to be lifelong learners who are capable of discovering and applying new ideas on their own, even when their schooling days are over and they no longer have the watchful guidance of a caring teacher to lead them.

Higher-Order Thinking vs. Factual Learning

With technology at our fingertips and unlimited pieces of information literally in the palms of our hands via smartphones, one could question the necessity of learning the thousands of facts that students memorize daily in our schools. Certainly there are facts and pieces of information every educated person should know, but it is not necessary to memorize as much as we do. Would it not be more productive to teach students how to retrieve factual information and apply it in new situations? Would it not be more important to teach students how to assess the validity and credibility of what they see on the Internet? Would it not be more important to teach students how to think critically and work collaboratively and creatively to solve unknown problems?

For example, when I was in fifth grade, I dutifully memorized the order of the planets from the sun. We practiced it in class many times. I believe there was some sort of mnemonic my teacher taught us to remember the order, but it escapes me now. I made a 100 on that test. All we had to do on the test was list the planets in order and of course, spell them correctly. I was a good memorizer and a good speller and my parents were happy with my A in science that quarter. Here is the rub though…if someone offered me a million dollars I could not list the planets in order, I am not even sure if I could list all nine (or is it eight now?). Maybe I could. I cannot say that I have ever needed to use that critical information I practiced so hard to remember in fifth grade. Should the need arise, thank goodness for Google. But I wonder whether I would have more interest now in astronomy or would have learned more about astronomy if my fifth grade teacher had involved me in active learning. I wonder whether I would have been more excited if someone had put a telescope in my hands or asked me some of the questions that perplexed the great astronomers in our history.

In an active learning approach, students do activities that require higher-order thinking. Students do things like solving problems and doing projects that require them to apply their new knowledge, synthesize new information, and analyze data to make generalizations. They grapple with questions that require critical thinking. In other words, they do something with the content information. In a passive learning approach, students focus on factual learning. The emphasis with a passive learning approach is memorization and recall of pieces of knowledge. This is not to say that students in active learning classrooms are not expected to learn factual information—they are. However, they learn those facts while in the process of doing something with them.

To illustrate this difference let’s look into the classrooms of Mrs. Roberts and Mr. Williams. Mrs. Roberts is a firm believer in active learning while Mr. Williams is a firm believer in passive learning. Both of these teachers are teaching seventh grade mathematics and both are working on adding integers.

Notice that the goals of the two teachers are different. Mrs. Roberts values conceptual understanding and application through problem solving. However, Mr. Williams values automaticity and using the rules accurately. Also notice that both teachers lead the students to the rules; however, Mrs. Roberts has the students discover the rules for themselves, while Mr. Williams presents