FOUR TEACHING REFORMS THAT PROMOTE LEARNING FOR ALL STUDENTS

General education introductory earth science courses have traditionally been taught by lecture that principally served as a vehicle for information transfer. We present data to support four changes that can be implemented to promote more effective learning of content while also supporting students’ cognitive development. These changes result in a restructuring of the classroom environment to supplement lecture with in-class activities involving students working together in small groups.

Our rationale for this approach is based around four key principles: 1. Who are we teaching? Test results from over 500 students in general education classes reveal that approximately half learn best when exercises are tied to personal experience, either as result of direct hands-on activities or indirectly through the description of familiar events. Without something familiar to serve as a base for learning, these students have difficulty understanding abstract concepts and resort to memorization to retain information. 2. How do our students learn? Students learn most effectively when they have opportunities to regularly assess understanding with their peers. The daily use of formal collaborative groups of four students each resulted in increased student performance, enthusiasm, attendance, and retention. 3. What should our students learn? Instructors often cite the development of higher-order thinking skills as a high priority. Results of a logical thinking test instrument reveal that students in collaborative learning environments improve thinking skills more than those in traditional lecture settings. Furthermore, students who begin the class with the lowest logical thinking scores typically show the greatest improvement. 4. How much do our students learn? We generated multiple daily in-class exercises in an effort to assess on-going student learning and recognize potential misconceptions. We reduced the volume of content that was covered in lecture and made students responsible for some content acquisition through readings and/or homework. There was no decrease in student content knowledge on exams in comparison with traditional lecture sections.