The rise of

 

 

approaches across cultures

 Audun Skau Hansen,  for the Norway-Japan academic network seminar 2023

 

Disclaimer
Is there a need to change higher education?

Experimentation drives development

New technologies

New student groups

Needs of society are changing

Educational systems at a glance (~2020)

Statistic

Norway

  

Japan

Years of compulsory education

Average years of schooling for adults

Spending per student (in USD)

The share of 25-34 year-olds with tertiary attainment

10 [*]

11.8 [*]

17 757 [OECD, 2019]

55 %[OECD, 2021]

  

9 [*]

9.8 [*]

12 474 [OECD, 2022]

65 % [OECD, 2021]

Is "passive learning" even possible?
Active learning:

Students do more than just listen

Emphasis on developing student skills

Higher order thinking

Engagement in activities

Reflection on own learning

Bonwell, C. C., & Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. 1991 ASHE-ERIC higher education reports. ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, The George Washington University, One Dupont Circle, Suite 630, Washington, DC 20036-1183.
"The lecture of the future is remote-controlled" (Universitas, 2010)

Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American journal of physics, 69(9), 970-977.

Policy in Norway St.meld. nr. 27 (2000-2001)

"In order to enhance the learning outcome and progression, student active teaching methods should be emphasised in combination with assessments, promoting learning through recurring feedback.
"For å styrke læringsutbyttet og progresjonen skal det legges vekt på studentaktive undervisningsformer i kombinasjon med evalueringer som fremmer læring gjennom jevnlige tilbakemeldinger. "

Policy in Norway St.meld. nr. 16 (2016-2017)

"All students shall receive active and varied learning- and assesment approaches, where digital opportunities are utilized."
"Alle studenter skal møte aktiviserende og varierte lærings- og vurderingsformer, der digitale muligheter utnyttes."

Policy in Japan MEXT: "Towards a Qualitative Transformation of University Education for Building a New Future" (2012)

"The cultivation of 'gakushiryoku' requires active learning through discussions and debates, and experiential education programs through internships"

A swift transition in Japan, according to MEXT[*]:

"(...) 41.6% of four-year universities and colleges provide the faculty development workshops for promoting active learning methods in a class as compared with that of 26.9% in 2013.""
[*]Yamada, A., & Yamada, R. (2018). The new movement of active learning in Japanese higher education: the analysis of active learning case in Japanese graduate programs. Active Learning-Beyond the Future, 1(4), 1-16.

Promises of active learning:

Engage a broad group of students

Enhance learning outcomes 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.

Not necessarily a "silver bullet" Matsushita, K. (2018). An invitation to deep active learning. Deep active learning: Toward greater depth in university education, 15-33.

Prof. Kayo Matsushita

deep

active learning

engagement and understanding

Matsushita, K. (2018). An invitation to deep active learning. Deep active learning: Toward greater depth in university education, 15-33.

Active learning is realized in how teaching is organized, for instance

Peer-instruction ("clickers")

Think-pair-share

One minute paper

Problem solving in groups

Case studies

Implementation in Japan:

"AL often entails the application of problem-based learning, cooperative learning, and other types of class activities, as recommended by the Central Council of Education in its 2012 report"
[*]Ito, H., & Takeuchi, S. (2022). The demise of active learning even before its implementation? Instructors’ understandings and application of this approach within Japanese higher education. Education Inquiry, 13(2), 185-204.
How do you use active learning? n %
1. Problem-based/Project based learning (PBL) 19 9.3
2. Cooperative/Collaborative learning (CL) 21 10.3
3. Other class activities (e.g. Presentations) 22 10.8
4. Uncertain 6 2.9
5. Others 39 19.1
6. PBL, CL, and other class activities 35 17.2
7. PBL and other class activities 21 10.3
8. PBL and CL 20 9.8
9. CL and other class activities 12 5.9
10. PBL and other responses 4 2.0
11. CL and other responses 5 2.4
Total 204 100
[*]Ito, H., & Takeuchi, S. (2022). The demise of active learning even before its implementation? Instructors’ understandings and application of this approach within Japanese higher education. Education Inquiry, 13(2), 185-204.
Active learning in the first year experience (FYE) in Japanese universities and colleges [*]:

discussion

writing

collaborative learning

debate

Peer teaching

[*] Yamada, A., & Yamada, R. (2018). The new movement of active learning in Japanese higher education: the analysis of active learning case in Japanese graduate programs. Active Learning-Beyond the Future, 1(4), 1-16.
Frequency of various activities in FYE (2010, 4 Universities)
Yamada, A., & Yamada, R. (2018). The new movement of active learning in Japanese higher education: the analysis of active learning case in Japanese graduate programs. Active Learning-Beyond the Future, 1(4), 1-16.
Active Learning at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural sciences, UiO:

The Learning Assistant (LA) program at UiO [*]

A pedagogic support unit (KURT)

Centre for Computing in Science Education

B-tjenesten (student tutoring service)

Interactive computational projects (spinoff from the Hylleraas centre for quantum molecular sciences)

[*] Odden, T. O., Lauvland, A., Bøe, M. V., & Henriksen, E. K. (2023). Implementing the Learning Assistant Model in European higher education. European Journal of Physics.
The LA program in brief

A way of realizing active learning [*]

Undergraduates as tutors

Weekly meetings with teaching staff

Practice above theory

...but still some theory.

Course transformation

Evidence-based teaching methods

[*] Otero, V., Pollock, S., & Finkelstein, N. (2010). A physics department’s role in preparing physics teachers: The Colorado learning assistant model. American Journal of Physics, 78(11), 1218-1224.

The Learning Assistant program

Content in the LA-program

Week

Topic

  

Literature
1 Communcation and activity   Lang, J. M. (2016). Small changes in teaching: The first/last 5 minutes of class. The chronicle of higher education.
2 Open and closed questions   Blosser, P. E. (1991). How to ask the right questions. NSTA Press.
3 Sensemaking vs. answermaking   Megowan-Romanowicz, C. (2016). Whiteboarding: A tool for moving classroom discourse from answer-making to sense-making. The Physics Teacher, 54(2), 83-86.
4 Microlectures  
5 Inclusive teaching   Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure matters: twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322-331.
6 Observation  
A typical LA-session:

Debrief

Intro

Warm-up

Theory

Task

Share-out

Summarize

Effects of the LA-program

"A thematic analysis of these data showed that participation in the LA model helped ensure LA buy-in to both the interactive engagement methods and goal of cultivating conceptual understanding that underlie most research-based instructional strategies (...)""
[*] Odden, T. O., Lauvland, A., Bøe, M. V., & Henriksen, E. K. (2023). Implementing the Learning Assistant Model in European higher education. European Journal of Physics.
KURT: A pedagogical support centre for science education
The Centre for Computing in Science Education
The Open World Learning framework (summer internships)
Open World Learning
graph based learning paths, student-driven content generation, personalized and AI-driven assessment, and embedded code and simulations promoting computational thinking.
B-tjenesten
Tools for exploration

 

 

 

  Asymmetric forces for lifelike molecular dynamics  

 

 

The rise of

 

 

approaches across cultures

  Presentation contained works by Audun Skau Hansen, Tor Ole Odden, Andreas Haraldsrud, Tone Gregers, Steven Wilson, Christine Olsen, Jonathan Smith, Simen Reine (and the HSP team), Michele Cascella, Elias Dalan, Ayla Coder, Hanan Gharayba and many others.