Over the last few decades, researchers have gathered a lot of information about how students learn, and as a result, we’ve seen a shift in what happens in college classrooms. We used to teach using the ’empty vessel’ model, where students were viewed as passive learners, waiting for professors to ‘pour’ knowledge into their empty brains.
Based on the research available today, we know that students remember information longer, and absorb the information more deeply when:
- lectures are interspersed with questions or class discussions
- lectures and readings provide a set of facts or information about a theory, and are followed by an in-class activity or assignment. During this activity or assignment, students apply, analyze, or evaluate the facts/theory (or create something new using the facts/theory)
Since my goal is for you to remember and use the information you’ll learn during the semester, I construct agendas for each class session that usually involve two or three different activities. These activities often include combinations of lectures, films, examples taken from pop culture or the news, class discussions with the entire class, or class discussions in small groups. For example, a class session may include 1-3 of the following:
- a lecture where I pause periodically to ask you questions about the content (to provide you with new information, and allow you to take a moment to apply or analyze that information)
- a video clip or a full film (in order to provide you with an example that you will later use to interpret/apply information that you learned in a lecture or assigned reading)
- an activity where you recall and reflect on information you read in preparation for the class, then discuss your reflection with a classmate (because we often remember information better when we explain it to someone else)
- a task oriented activity that you complete in a group (because you will deepen your understanding of the information when you discuss it with others AND you’ll engage in critical thinking and practice intercultural competency when you consider multiple perspectives)
- an activity where you work with your classmates to apply information from a lecture or assigned reading to other information from a reading, assigned audio clip, news article, online video clip, or film (because you will deepen your understanding of the information when you discuss it with others AND you’ll engage in critical thinking and practice intercultural competency when you consider multiple perspectives)
I come prepared to every class with a pre-designed agenda. Sometimes, I’ll announce the agenda at the beginning of class, but if you want to know my plan for the class and I forget to announce it, just ask!