Teaching Tips with Gary Guillet

Teaching Tips aims to share creative pedagogical practices that Furman instructors are implementing in and out of the classroom. In this month’s story, Gary Guillet shares his experience with active learning through in-class assignments (ICA). His reflection also includes details on low-stakes grading strategies to encourage the process of learning, not perfect performance! Links to pedagogical evidence is included at the end of this article if you’d like to further explore these ideas in your own teaching. 

“One of the core principles I adhere to in teaching STEM courses is that doing teaches more than observing. For me, this takes the form of in-class assignments which are designed to be quick-hitting assessments I can intersperse throughout my course wherever I think they could be most impactful. The typical pattern is that in class I will cover a new concept, which inevitably contains a skill I want the students to practice and master. So instead of asking “Who has questions on this?” or just covering more examples, I give out an ICA (which usually take about 5-20 minutes) and let them start applying the material immediately. One critical area this assists in is the students ask questions of greater depth to each other and to me. The cognitive load of learning new information is transferred to applying instead of listening and watching. ICA’s also serve as formative assessments that I can use to get a read on the students’ comprehension, and I can adjust my lecture on the fly. Students frequently comment on the role ICA’s play in their learning.  

For example, when students are learning intermolecular forces, a core concept in chemistry, biology, and other sciences, it can be reduced to memorizing the facts about each type and a simplistic ranking of their strengths. Instead, I use an ICA which provides an image of chemical structures with different classes of compounds. It also contains the associated boiling points and molar masses of the compounds. The ICA guides students to inspect the structures to determine which intermolecular forces are dominant using the definition. Then, students connect their discovery to the molar masses and boiling points. In this way, the ICA makes students a part of the learning process to achieve the ultimate learning objective: connecting chemical structure to chemical properties via intermolecular forces. 

In terms of practical application, especially in General Chemistry 1, ICA’s can only be completed if a student attends class, which encourages them to attend even my 8:30 lectures!  But I also use low-stakes grading because I am aware of the burden of seemingly constant, stringent assessments can be for students. For example, if a student gets >85% on the ICA for the semester I give them full credit towards their final grade, so if a student makes a few mistakes throughout the semester or misses a couple of classes, they are not penalized (and the instructor doesn’t have to go look back and update grades and all of that!). I explain to my students that ICA’s are about me and them hunkering down and working together, not about perfection. They can use these assignments to examine their process, and they can make some mistakes without a significant penalty. This, I think, engenders “good vibes” where I am viewed as at the ready to support student learning, that we are working as a team, and I’m not just the guy with the red pen.” 

Spotlight on Evidence: 

Active learning is a well-supported pedagogical approach within STEM. In fact, Freeman and colleagues’ 2014 meta-analysis is now cited over 16,800 times! Evidence from Kozanitis & Nenciovici’s 2023 meta-analysis also supports active learning within the humanities and social sciences. But active learning doesn’t just improve learning, it has positive impacts on students’ wellbeing (Ribeiro-Silva et al., 2022). Check out Indiana University at Bloomington for example evidence specific to your discipline! 

References: 

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Active learning. Indiana University Bloomington. https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/evidence-based/active-learning.html 

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111 

Kozanitis, A., & Nenciovici, L. (2023). Effect of active learning versus traditional lecturing on the learning achievement of college students in humanities and social sciences: A meta-analysis. Higher Education, 86, 1377–1394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00977-8 

Ribeiro-Silva, E., Amorim, C., Aparicio-Herguedas, J. L., & Batista, P. (2022). Trends of active learning in higher education and students’ well-being: A literature review. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 844236. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.844236