Activity Based Learning

Reading through last Sunday’s paper I caught an article in which the writer responded to the question of why a certain actor was considered poor at his craft. The writer’s response “do not confuse stardom with knowing how to act.” That is similar to the following saying “do not confuse lecturing with learning.”

The lecture method of instruction is alive and well in our culture. It is used extensively in both public and private education institutions. In Thielens survey of over 800 faculty at 80 institutions, lecturing was more dominant as class sizes became bigger. And in the survey of faculty at 24 institutions, Blacburn, Pellino, Boberg, and O’Connell provide this conclusion “Give faculty almost any kind of a class in any subject, large or small, upper or lower division, and they will lecture.”

Efficiency, versatility, and cost effectiveness are advantages of the lecture mode of delivery. Efficient in that a lecture can be repeated over and over by the instructor. A variety of settings, group size, and subjects make it versatile. Cost effective in that you can teach hundreds, even thousands through one teacher.

Failing seems to be the word most used concerning lectures in studies including these by Turnwald et al, 1993, Hake, 2002, McKeachic, 2002, Ramsden, 2000, and Cantillion, 2003, in their works on education. Their comments about lecturing included points such as: “placing a burden of organizing and synthesizing content solely on the lecturer, not suited for complex, detailed or abstract material, fails to teach students how to solve problems through content applications, lacks student-teacher interaction, restricts teacher’s ability to monitor student’s learning, and does not provide opportunities for students to apply higher levels of learning” to name a few cited by Aldona Augustininiene’ in his paper “Lecturer . . .”

But there is hope. In the abstract to his paper The Preconception-Based Learning Model, author R. Mitchell says “Evidence from many sources shows that the least effective mode for mathematics learning is the one that prevails in most of America’s classrooms: lecturing and listening. To improve mathematical instruction, lecturing should be replaced, or at least supplemented, with an activity-based, exploratory-centered form of instruction.” This is a great segue into how we instruct at Bios Christian Academy.

An activity-based instructional model is used throughout the school from the youngest kindergarten student to the graduating senior in high school. It is a part of our reading, writing, music, science, math, history, and Bible.

Activity-based means many things: student accountability in each subject throughout the day; students actively involved in their learning; student-teacher interactions are greatly increased. Most of all as you can see from above, the emphasis is placed on the student and where they are in the knowledge of the subject.

In contrast to the instructional method of lecturing, in an activity-based approach, students are in constant interaction with their teacher many times throughout their classes. The emphasis is on what the student knows. Where they go and how they get there are partly determined by their present knowledge base. Teachers are able to closely monitor student progress (or lack of) and provide lesson changes accordingly. Different levels of learning are regularly used throughout the day and instructional periods.

Because of our particular approach to activity-based learning, students spend the majority, okay let’s say almost all (80-99%) of their learning time not listening to a lecture, but instead activity learning. This will take many forms including reading, one-on-one teacher discussions, group discussions, individual labs, application problem solving, and long-term projects. All of these are part of the student’s daily schooling.

The teacher’s role changes greatly also in our activity-based instructional model. A reminder that in the lecture approach the emphasis is on the teacher and their knowledge of the present subject. At Bios, the teacher still must possess a vast amount of knowledge in the subject - even more than a lecturer because not only do our teachers have to know that day’s lesson for each student, but how to break it down for them if understanding is difficult for the student, or to expound on student knowledge. The teacher becomes mentor, coach, tutor, trainer, guide, and an educator everyday and week.

Imagine two highways with the same number of cars driving down them, you in the middle car with 50 cars ahead of you and 50 cars behind you. The speed limit is 65 mph. The first highway is comprised of one lane. All 101 cars are moving in the same direction. All drivers want to arrive at their destination. But in front of everybody is a police car and he has set the speed at 40 mph. Imagine the frustration. On this one lane highway nobody can pass the police officer. Everyone must go 40 mph.

Now imagine a second highway with the identical speed limit and number of cars but with two major differences. This is a freeway with seven lanes and the police officer also plays the role of mechanic, direction provider, and encourager to help everyone to their destination.

The one lane highway is the lecture approach. Even though students could learn more material, they cannot because the instructor sets the speed, usually well below what many students could achieve. And when information is provided, there is little opportunity to ask questions about where the students are going and why.

While on the seven lane freeway the picture is very different. The police officer, instead of slowing traffic is providing assistance, instruction, and guidance for the drivers to arrive at their destinations with clear understanding of where, how, and why. The teacher of the activity-based (Bios) classroom performs the same function. No one is held back or made to go faster because of the skills of their fellow classmates. Instead students are individually challenged to move at a pace that is ever changing. When the material is understood well, the pace is quicker and when understanding is lacking, different methods of instruction can be used to bring the student’s progress up to speed.

There is movement on both highways, but the journey on both is quite different.

Our students thrive under the method of activity-based learning because of the daily challenges, accountability, and the intelligent teachers we have been blessed with to instruct in this manner.

Helpful High Schoolers

There are many wonderful occurrences which happen throughout the day at Bios. Some I am told about, some I observe. Things like encouraging statements by the students to each other throughout the day, minor and major academic accomplishments, and then there are events like this.

Three high school girls came up to me with a proposal. They had already discussed the idea with Mrs. Ihms and had garnered her support. Their idea was to meet with three other classmates and mentor/study with them after school with Mrs. Ihms. I said yes to the request.

So, one afternoon last week, the six students worked after school studying for the biology test. Three encouraging and three responding students.

After the test, all three had made marked improvements in their test scores.

What’s the big deal? It was the whole event which was so encouraging to me. The initiative by the three students, the positive response of the mentored students, and the positive results were wonderful. The maturity, forethought, caring, planning, and follow through shows a lot of character. Just another wonderful occurrence at Bios.

Blessings and Thanks

Thank you to all the parents, students, teachers, and friends of the school who through your wonderful salesmanship have helped us grow by almost 300 percent from our opening day student count of 34. We have 98 students registered as of today in our kindergarten to twelfth grades for the 2009-2010 school year. We have room for just eighteen more, so thanks again for your support and for selling the school so well.