Designing active teaching and learning
Do you sometimes find yourself sweating in the classroom while your students are really relaxed? Do you find yourself answering your own questions more often than your students? Are your students mainly concerned with getting a good grade while putting in minimum effort?
Obstacles
These are teaching obstacles that Michael Klos, Jessie Pool, Jonathan Huijts and yours truly attempted to solve in the ‘Flipping the Classroom’ project. As part of the project, one course in each master’s programme was ‘flipped’ and new teaching and learning models were developed. These new models were then tested, observed, evaluated and analysed.
Design principles
The solution to these obstacles was found by developing seven design principles that were then applied within the flipped courses. Teaching and learning that follows these design principles enables students to acquire more in-depth knowledge, improve their command of legal skills, and most importantly, take more responsibility for their own learning.
What are the design principles and how do they work?
- Student discussions
- The name says it all: this design principle involves allowing students the space to discuss seminar assignments and propositions together. We noticed that students prepared their work better and participated in discussions with the lecturer more actively.
- There are many ways of ensuring that students discuss the material among themselves. Take a look at the Menu of active learning methods (link in Dutch) launched by Kernvisie Team 2 for inspiration!
- Interim summative assessments
- Students were assessed and graded on the material as part of an interim assessment in the form of a partial exam, presentation, or essay. We noticed that students started revising sooner and the level increased during teaching.
- Interim formative feedback
- Students were given interim formative (non-graded) feedback on draft essays and mock presentations. The feedback gave both students and lecturers an understanding of the learning process so that changes could be made before the final product needed to be ready.
- Independent acquisition of basic knowledge
- Students taking the courses in question independently acquired basic knowledge by watching knowledge clips, taking quizzes and studying literature they found on their own initiative. The learning analytics for the knowledge clips showed that students watched them just before learning opportunities.
- If you create learning materials such as knowledge clips, make sure you don’t make the course literature redundant. We noticed that if students were able to gain knowledge by watching knowledge clips, they were much less inclined to study the set literature that covered the same content.
- Teaching sessions at high cognitive level
- Since students had already acquired basic knowledge on their own initiative, this enabled teaching at a higher cognitive level during the teaching sessions, such as analysing, evaluating and creating. The lecturer served as an expert and focused on facilitating student discussions, critical thinking, challenging and contextualising.
- Using skills to enhance knowledge
- Students worked on a number of skills, such as teamworking, giving presentations, reflection, finding relevant literature, research and verbal and written communication. The lecturer served as a coach and expert, providing feedback and giving input where necessary. We noticed that the level increased during the teaching sessions and that it was really up to the student to take responsibility for their own learning.
- Offering choices
- Students were given specific choices in the flipped courses. For example, they were allowed to choose between three propositions in an assessment, pick a seminar topic and select a presentation topic from ten different options. This increased students' autonomy and helped them feel more connected with other students who made the same choice.
Now, you might be thinking: but this is only achievable within a small group, right? Or: that’s nice, but it’s going to take a long time, which I don't have. But those are misconceptions. Even minor changes can produce great results for active learning. For example, the design principle of student discussions – in small or large groups – is very easy to apply and has a huge effect. You can also provide formative feedback during a lecture rather than one to one. Some design principles require more time during teaching sessions but ensure that hardly any students need to resit their exams. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider which design principle best aligns with your teaching and other tasks.
Bachelor’s level teaching
While the design principles were only explored for master’s level teaching, they are also very easy to apply during teaching at bachelor's level. For that reason, some also feature in the implementation of the Kernvisie. For instance, the design principles are currently being shared during work sessions with the course coordinators for the first-year bachelor’s programmes, with the aim of enhancing active teaching and learning in these courses.
Interested?
Want to find out more about the design principles? The project team is always on hand to give more information or even a presentation. We’d love to hear from you if you have any comments, questions or ideas!
On behalf of the ‘Flipping the Classroom’ project team,
Marije Schneider
Academic Director of the Master of Laws programme