In this article, the feedback from five subjects that had utilized the VMS Active Learning classrooms for half a semester is reported as a summary. As the response, the feedback is analyzed and possible future adjustments are proposed.
Noticeable improvement over typical lecture class
1) more cooperation among students towards learning together
2) more participation of students in the learning activities
3) more interaction within small group
4) more interaction between teacher and students
5) particularly benefits students with strong theoretical background
6) more practice, resulting in better developed skills
7) challenging/interesting learning activities
Drawbacks
1) inflexible seat positions
2) not suitable for presentation/announcement
3) sound echoing and noisy
4) not effective for passive students
5) requires more instructor’s effort
6) difficult when the focus is on theories
7) classroom construction and equipment should be improved: boards/desks are hard to clean, look is not strikingly colorful, poor installation of wire-way can cause tripping hazards, strong sunlight in the afternoon
I will take on the drawbacks first.
On drawback 1, seat positions are fixed due to practical reason, which is to minimize the chance of damaging the electrical sockets on the ground (drawback 7). Besides, the small group size is enforced so that every student is active at participating, rather than staying passive with an intention to follow his/her peers’ learning. My personal opinion about the fixed seat positions is on the positive side, but newcomers to the classroom setting probably need more time to develop their class managing techniques. It should be noted, however, that students are allowed to move around the room to discuss with classmates at other desks.
I myself sometimes was troubled by drawback 2 as well. A direct solution would be a projector/screen for each class. Due to extremely decentralized setting, it is likely to be difficult to find an optimal location for a single projector/screen. Some other alternative solutions will be explored. For example, the use of online whiteboard. However, the extremely decentralized nature of the class process, which allows each student to approach class materials at his preferred pace, will still discourage the teacher to ask for a common students’ attention, except maybe at the beginning of the class.
Drawback 3 can be remedied with wall treatment to reduce sound reflection.
Handling drawbacks 4, 5, and 6 requires adapted perception about how learning process occurs in each student. Students who are passive should be encouraged to take more active role towards their own learning. Lacking such skill should never be accepted as an excuse, but rather a motivation to breakthrough. After all, true learning is never about mocking up procedure. In a similar manner, theories can be learned inductively, as opposed to being told. A well accepted method to learn scientific theories is to have them deduced from experiments. Alternatively, terminologies and bite-size parts of theories can also be individually learned through supplemental materials. Considering the energy spent, active learning process probably requires more teacher’s effort. But because the teacher takes different roles from what they would in lecture class, efforts are not directly comparable. On the other hand, this may suggest that a good average learning outcome is unlikely in a typical lecture class, as a lot less teacher’s effort is adequate to complete a session.
Drawback 7 is about the same issue as drawback 3. An easy-to-clean boards/desks as well as neat room construction should allow more effective class session.
Next is about the improvements gained over typical lecture class. In short, all the 7 mentioned advantages are in-line with the principles behind VMS Active Learning pedagogy [part 1]. I personally have spent many years developing my process of teaching in such active learning environment. Most teachers who provided the feedback have just adopted the concept for less than half a year. In a sense, learning to teach in this mode is what they will take time to “learn actively” in a decentralized way as well.
For the first half-a-semester utilization, I see that the outcome meets my expectation satisfactorily. The next phase will be about getting our teachers to learn pedagogical techniques from one another. At the same time, I am looking to secure some budget to make certain adaptation and improvement, especially on the room construction issues.