As part of my role as BILT Student Fellow, I am researching ‘Active and Inclusive Learning’, exploring and understanding students’ experiences with, and opinions on, their teaching. I conducted a focus group with second- and third- year students of varying degree disciplines, as a first step to collating data on student experience of active learning. In conducting this focus group, three main themes became apparent:
- There is a lack of awareness of active learning
- There is a lack of engagement with teaching and pre-teaching tasks
- Learning is affected by factors outside of students’ control
This blog will work through these themes, highlighting student responses to illustrate key points relevant to active learning.
- Lack of awareness of active learning
As I work more on this project theme, a re-emerging issue seems to be the distance between what students know, and what the university thinks students know, about active learning. Whilst in an academic context, the phrase is used normally and discussed as a concept we are all familiar of, however when this is attempted in a conversation with students, it becomes clear that this information has not been disseminated.
Inte: before this focus group right now, had you heard of active learning as a concept?
R1: No
R2: I think I’ve seen it written down somewhere
R3: I had heard of it yeah
R4: No
These responses were particularly interesting due to later discussion. As the focus group went on, it was clear that most of the respondents had experienced active learning, however, were mostly unaware of it. This suggests that there needs to be a clearer and open discussion of teaching methods to best facilitate students to engage. The idea here is that students will be more willing to take part in group discussion and active learning tasks if they understand why these teaching methods are being used.
- Lack of engagement with teaching and pre-teaching tasks
In my experience, the way in which you approach pre-teaching tasks plays a huge role in shaping how you learn and your experiences of teaching. My studies at Bristol have always revolved around seminars and lectures, and the impact and experience of a seminar is very changeable depending on one’s preparation
R3: ‘like whenever there’s prep work there’s an issue that a lot of people try and do a shortcut by not doing it’
Most seminars rely on students having completed some reading or tasks, ready to discuss it in the seminar. Therefore, when there is low attendance or low engagement with the tasks, teaching can become more stilted.
R3: ‘that does kind of damage the discussion if people aren’t as caught up as others’
This is relevant to active learning as if group discussion and other active tasks require pre-reading and engagement with materials and students are not doing this, then academic plans for teaching can be disrupted.
So what does and doesn’t make students engage in pre-teaching tasks?
One main reason to not was time constraints. Discussion of other commitments and deadlines slowly revealed that pre-teaching tasks can tend to be on the bottom of the pile when it comes to completing work, especially around assessment season. A second and quite surprising reason from one respondent was that they felt it wasn’t useful to them.
R4: last year I had all in person exams, and I knew I wasn’t going to memorise all the pre-reading, so I just didn’t do any of it. It wouldn’t have gotten me a higher mark anyway so I’m glad I didn’t.
This sentiment towards pre-teaching tasks highlights that if students do not feel their teaching or assigned tasks are relevant to summative assessment, they may become neglected. In my undergraduate degree, commonly we would have 3-8 assessment questions to choose to answer, with each one being related to a week of content. Of course, an easy way out of weekly work was to choose to do the question corresponding to week three, and then not engage with further content. This suggests that a redesign in assessment structure, to have a more holistic approach and require work from across a unit, may be beneficial to students engagement.
- Factors outside of students’ control
Student outcomes from teaching of course require effort and participation on their part, within and outside of teaching. However, throughout the focus group issues became apparent that could not be moderated by students. One angle this came from was the condition of teaching spaces;
R3: Berkeley Square lecture theatre is terrible, it doesn’t have working wifi
This lack of wi-fi impacted students ability to open lecture slides, notes and do odd bits of research whilst in the lecture. Also, I cannot help but imagine this makes teaching extremely difficult for academics, if they wish to show videos or use any content from their Office365 online, as both require wi-fi.
Similarly, whilst focus has been on students’ engagement, my focus group discussed a lack of engagement from lecturers changing the learning experience. This came across as less of an issue in teaching contexts such as seminars and labs, however all respondents related to issues with how some lectures are delivered
R4: actually seeing someone actually passionate, like a lecture when they read off the slides you can’t engage.
As a current 4th year, this is definitely an issue I can identify with. In a lecture that lasts for two hours, for the majority of the lecture to simply be reading what is written on slides, not only makes learning boring and difficult to concentrate on, but critically disincentives attendance. If I can get the exact same experience watching the lecture on Re/Play, and also gain the ability to slow it down, take a break etc., then this option suddenly becomes far more attractive.
A final factor that emerged in relation to student control was the impact of paid employment on ability to attend and engage with teaching. The cost of living in the UK has been pushing increasing numbers to work alongside their studies. Even when students plan their shifts around in person teaching, this could still appear as an issue.
R2: I had some last year when I was working mornings, and that would run over. I think with distance from university when last year I lived far away I wouldn’t go in unless I was coming in for the whole day.
This particular quote highlights two work and cost related issues that students experience. Firstly, even well-planned work commitments can impact teaching, and can be completely out of the student’s control. Secondly, as a rule, the housing closest to campus and in desirable locations has a higher cost. As a way around this, choosing to live far up in Redland or in Gloucester Road etc. areas can reduce rent. However, it also gives students a 25–50-minute walk to campus, making the commute to a 9am lecture in November and December pretty undesirable. This is an issue that will go completely unnoticed by students who do not have to work, and/or have the financial support structures to cover costly rent.
Do you speak to your students about active learning methods? Do you think an increased awareness of teaching pedagogies may help benefit students learning? Please leave a comment below sharing your experiences with this.
Very interesting and useful research. Thank you! It susbstantiates my practical experience where some students ‘get’ active learning, but too many don’t engage with it. The prep is the hardeest ‘sell’, but active learning doesn’t work without it. I think we could do much more at a foundational level, consistenty across units, of explaining what active learning is, its benefits (contra ‘broadcast’ lectures), and what’s required to learn well with it. Ideally, we wouldn’t have to re-explain this for each active learning-based unit. But we as teachers also need to make sure it delivers for students — demonstrating its efficacy early and often will help to ‘seal the deal’.
Thank you! Yes, prep outside of the classroom can be difficult, especially I think if students feel unsure of how it is beneficial. I agree that students need to understand why active learning is being implemented, and an important step will be disseminating this information in a way that works for academics and students alike!
Thanks for sharing your research, Kat. Do you think that students’ prior educational experiences shape some of these research findings about ‘active learning’? Are there differences in expectations around pedagogic approaches at, for example, would many regard A Level experiences as typically ‘inactive learning’?