Teaching Practices That Actually Work: Reaching the Tipping Point or Stuck at a Roadblock?

Have we reached a tipping point in the use of active teaching techniques that have been proven to improve student learning? In her blog, “Teaching Practices That Actually Work: Have We Reached a Tipping Point?”  Debra Humphries examines how far we have come and where have yet to travel.

 

The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) measures “faculty members’ expectations of student engagement in educational practices that are empirically linked with high levels of learning and development." Additionally the survey examines “how faculty members spend their time on professorial activities… and the kinds of learning experiences their institutions emphasize.” (FSSE 2009 Overview, http://nsse.iub.edu) The 2009 FSSE report, based on a sample of approximately 150 colleges and universities and almost 19,000 faculty responses, is the basis for Humphries blog.

 

Humphries, the Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), examines “high-impact practices,” a specific set of educational practices that research has shown to have a significant impact on student learning and success. These practices include first-year seminars and experiences, learning communities, collaborative assignments and projects, undergraduate research, and diversity/global learning. The good news is that a large fraction of faculty surveyed seems to understand the value of these high impact activities. Unfortunately few students actually participate in these activities and participation is lowest amongst students from underrepresented groups. Where is the disconnect? While Humphries doesn’t answer that question, it does make one wonder if it is just a matter of time until we cross the tipping point, or if there still exist some systematic roadblocks in the path from development of high-impact approaches to the use of those tools in the classroom.

 

Finally I have pondered AACU’s list of high-impact learning strategies. Are we, as an educational reform community beginning to converge on a broad set of accepted approaches that improve student learning and retention, make the classroom more accessible to everyone, and give students the skills and experiences they will need to face STEM fields in the a 21^st century? Certainly AACU’s strong list is broad and comprehensive. CIRTL’s articulation of Learning through Diversity is well represented as it the concept of the learning community. However CIRTL’s notion of Teaching-as-Research (as distinguished from “undergraduate research”) as an approach to iteratively develop, refine and respond to student learning is nowhere on the list. Without this iterative reflection and experimental verification I worry that such a list could become as outdated as any previous century list of best educational practices.

 

Maybe we are getting close, but I think that we are not there yet.