Hi Robert,
Students really do retain information better when games are played. Students enjoy playing games and having fun and learning all at the same time. What a great way to bring energy into the classroom.
Patricia Scales
I agree. It helps students a lot to revisit/remember class materials when you make the test review sounds like open discussiion or a role play.
My students, being graphic designers, are very visual. To help them learn about the history of graphic design, I play a match-up game. Students are broken into 2 or 3 groups, they are shown a piece of work on the screen and asked to match it to a choice of 5 eras. The team with the correct answer gets the point. I go a step further and we discuss the characteristics of that piece of work and why it is from that era. Students seem to learn a lot faster the styles of the different eras.
The main barriers at my facility to active learning is in obtaining appropriate equipment and material necessary for more hands on lab work, and also developing safe procedures that are time effective for working with this equipment. I have struggled with both of these at a facility whose director has no educational experience and views the learning processes as one in which the instructor present information and students sit respectfully and receive it. It is difficult to implement any effective change under these conditions but I continually improve the existing labs to incorporate more hands on active learning.
Hi Lisa,
Students love extra credit and are more eager to pay attention and participate when they know that they are going to get something for it.
Patricia Scales
Hi Earnest,
If you keep your students engaged, there really is an automatic engagement. Students love it when things are made interesting and exciting.
Patricia Scales
Hi! I also have used a jeopardy Power point to review chapter information.
Another way I get students active in learning is after learning how to do File Management and File Compression, the next class I offer them the challenge to perform one of each. They receive extra credit for doing it and being able to answer a question about it such as: If someone sent you this compressed file, how would you open it?
Lisa
I like lecturing. It is important to get students involved by pausing as intervals to ask students if they understand or if they have any questions. At times, I find it appropriate to ask their opinions about the subject matter. The bottom line is: Keep them involved in the process.
Earnest J. Kendall, MSN, RN-BC
Hi George,
Role playing is such an effective learning tool. Students have a lot of fun with role playing. You will quickly realize you have some great actors and actresses amongst you. The perfect combination is to have fun while learning.
Patricia Scales
I teach a class on immunizations as a lecture. In the future I will try small group role-play/presentations to enhance learning.
Hi Ronald,
This is also a great exercise to hold your students accountable. Students need to read!
Patricia Scales
Hi Morgan,
Great practice! They are certainly benefits to doing peer teaching. I like it how you are ready to go just in case the student is not prepared. I am sure if the student ever gives out incorrect information or can not explain a topic well, you dive right in.
Patricia Scales
I break up the class into groups and give them blank notecards in which they will fill them in with questions they have from the required reading the night before. I collect them and then they are shuffled and discussed by presenting the question and then having an open forum with the students to proactively seek and discuss the information, It is as I learned a high risk, but it has never been an issue. The students seem to really like it!
I am an adjunct professor and I teach both sociology and psychology classes. I have found a technique which combines a class project with lecturing and active student involvement. In the classes I teach there are often topics which are similar in terms of categorization. For example in a Sociology of drugs course you have one chapter on each drug. And in a Cultural diversity class you may have one chapter assigned for each racial/ethnic group. I have assigned each student an outline and either a racial group, drug, or psychological disorder and they have to fill in the outline using the textbook and then they get to be the teacher for the day teaching the one specific unit, group or disorder etc to the class. In the case that they are not prepared I have as lecture set up and they can choose to make it up the next day. They seem to enjoy being able to share the information. I feel it teaches them the unit but also assists with public speaking skills as well.
Hi Richard,
Sounds like great fun, and most importantly they are learning. What an awesome way to promote active learning.
Patricia Scales
I too have added games into a test review. It's like baseball. I draw a circle in the center of the board and put home run in it. I then draw more circles around it, and write out in some of them, single in others, and double & triple in others. I then divide the class in half. Home and Away teams. I then take turns with the students on one of the teams asking them open ended review questions. If they answer correctly they get to through a sticky ball at the board. What ever circle the ball sticks in thats what they get (single,double,triple,homerun,or out. We keep track of where the runners are at, and score runs when they come home. after 3 outs it's the other teams turn. The only problem I have is I run out of review questions before they are ready to stop playing. They have even wanted to keep playing after the bell to go home.
Hi Marilyn,
Games are a nice change up, and students really do learn from playing games that pertain to the lesson.
Patricia Scales
I agree with you on doing games. These are the times when students tell you they had a good class and learned so much. It's rewarding.
Hi Brian,
Students really do retain the information when they are having fun while learning. Games are an effective teaching tool.
Patricia Scales
I use a Jeopardy game also with very good results. I get around this problem by having a "closed book" review game. Students are then prompted to use their memory instead of just using the book. This, I found, results in better test scores. If an answer is not known by memory, I use that moment to describe the answer in detail.
