Engaged Classrooms for the 21st Century
Silent, distracted, and sleeping students in the back row, a teacher in conversation with only one student in the front, seating that discourages lateral interactions, 以及黑暗和不受欢迎的环境:这些都是新大教师在2017年新大教育学研讨会上创造这个复合“地狱教室”时确定的特征. In contrast, when asked to remember effective or highly functional classrooms, faculty often talk about a culture of curiosity, multilateral interactions between students, students and faculty, and students and materials, opportunities for play and connection, and a sense of trust in the room. All of these positive features can be described as “engagement,” points of interaction in a class that invite interest, motivation, learning, and growth.
在他2018年编纂的关于教与学的学术著作中，教育专家 Joshua Eyler identifies curiosity, sociality, emotion, authenticity, 有机会经历生产性的失败，这是参与的关键方面，可以带来真正的学习. 为这些人提供空间的教室更有可能以他们认为有用的方式吸引学生, motivating, and transformative. Disengaged classrooms, such as the one conjured by faculty in the picture above, are more likely to lead to frustration, boredom, shallow learning done only to pass a minimum requirement, 学生和他们的老师都有浪费时间的感觉.
Before 2020, 我们有克服物理障碍的经验，比如房间里摆放不整齐的家具. As the Pandemic starts to wind down, Flex和远程格式只是增加了我们的技能. 以下是关于创建学生更有可能相互联系的空间的建议, with professors, and with course content; where they are more likely to undertake what Ken Bain 被称为“深度学习”:一种内在激励的方法，可以让他们坚持学习新知识, and that they will be able to use, for years to come.
Entering new spaces produces anxiety in most people. David Rock, an Australian neuroscientist, posits that when people come into new social spaces they are 关心地位、确定性、自主性、相关性和公平性. Translated to higher education, our students come to our classrooms sizing up social positioning, what they may know about the subject matter, if it’s a required class or an elective, who they might know, and if they will be treated fairly. If Rock is right, 在这些基本问题在他们的脑海中得到回答之前，他们将无法学到任何新的东西.
这就是为什么我们中的许多人在学期开始时本能地使用破冰的一个原因, or take time to introduce ourselves and our syllabus. Flipgrid, 这是一个免费的程序，允许学生录制短视频，供教师审阅和整理, offers an opportunity for students to get acquainted before 第一天上课，建立联系，学习，从第一天开始就很容易.
这个练习要求学生想象在什么条件下他们更有可能参与课堂活动. After students have thought about agreements, intentions, and conditions, 指导老师帮助学生准备将在整个学期中使用的协议.
As the physical nature of the traditional classroom evolves, 学生之间以及与老师之间的互动方式也是如此. 随着我们整合更多的合作活动，并依靠进一步的技术来传递信息，鼓励学生互动, 我们怎样才能帮助他们参与到这个过程中，并为他们的学习承担更多的责任呢?
In fall 2020 I taught hybrid courses; I expected a portion of the students to be in the physical classroom and the others to join remotely. 当大多数学生不在场时，我如何评估学生的参与情况, 许多远程加入的学生不愿或不能使用他们的相机? 我的解决办法是:不给我教的任何课程的参与分数. By mid-semester, 大约有90%的学生还在线，我也经常在屏幕上与他们互动，屏幕上满是漂浮在小黑盒子里的名字. Some students did remain engaged while others disconnected.
Based on this experience, 我决定在2021年春季混合课程中加入分级参与. 我们面临的挑战是设计一种对远程和面对面学生都公平的评估方法, and would motivate these two groups to engage in the course equally.
这个练习邀请学生创造性地参与课程材料，而不是通过回答问题, but by asking them. 这增加了学生参与的可能性，因为学生不仅要考虑核心内容, but ways in which that content may be accessed, linked to broader issues, and evaluated.
经济学课堂上的课堂演讲体验:在大型(40+)经济学课堂上，学生往往是学习材料过程中沉默的旁观者. 一些课堂时间显然是用来讲授理论和方法的. In bringing the theoretical into the concrete, 事实证明，学生成为这些理论思想应用的演示者是很有用的. 这些学生演讲的最终目的是让学生对主题有更深的了解，并自己学习.
我得到什么/我没有得到什么:一个正在运行的讨论板，鼓励学生参与和学生与老师的交流，同时也提供了加强学习的机会. This minimal intervention is easy to set up and maintain, and can be used for both remote and face-to-face teaching. 它建立在一些当代教育学书籍和指南网站推荐的“一分钟测验”练习的基础上. 用现在的术语来说，这是一种无风险的形成性评估.