Changing Teaching Strategies
Many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Portland State faculty are engaging in classroom teaching strategies designed to improve student success in these courses, by improving student-learning outcomes, student engagement with STEM and developing student identity as STEM learners and practitioners. What are these strategies and why are they being used?
More than 900 years ago the first universities were founded in Western Europe and the primary mode of instruction was the lecture. This can be thought of as an instructor focused, “teach by telling” mode of instruction. Whether we look at the needs of an increasingly complex job market or what we are discovering about how to best promote deep student learning, we see the need for new, innovative modes of instruction in our classrooms. The Oregon Talent Council has identified the need for a dynamic workforce with higher levels of applied or contextual skills. “Simply stated, workers need to learn how to learn.”
There are two important facets of the changing work environment:
- Human knowledge is estimated to double every 13 months; making much of what we learn today our of date in just a few years
- Business is conducted in interdisciplinary teams
What is active learning?
Active learning is "anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing" Felder and Brent (2009) defined active learning as "anything course-related that all students in a class session are called upon to do other than simply watching, listening and taking notes" (p. 2).