Universities are increasingly making use of active learning, recognizing its potential to enhance student learning. Educational literature supports the use of active learning, but also shows that it requires teachers to be able to create a stimulating learning environment.
Creating a stimulating learning environment can be complex, as it requires the balancing of student expectations, teacher beliefs about teaching and learning, but also course requirements and contextual factors. Consequently, many teachers struggle with this and will recognize how attempts at student engagement are met with silence and confused looks in the eyes of students.
The aim of this course is therefore to help teacher to teach in ways that engage students. To achieve this aim, we will first gain more insight into student engagement: what is it exactly? And when are students motivated to engage in active learning methods? What is needed? Then, we will dive into the work of Jan Willem Grijpma, who has completed his PhD in this topic and find out what he has learned that may benefit teachers at the VU.
After that, teachers will formulate a personal learning objective related to student engagement in a small-group active learning setting. We will then transfrom that learning objective to a learning opportunity, so that participants may experience growth in that aspect of teaching.
Lastly, we will create a safe and stimulating learning environment in which the participants may practice their learning objective and collaboratively reflect on their experiences, so they may gain an increased understanding and inspiration for implementation.
For whom?
The target audience for this course is teachers who have a question, need, wish, or problem related to student engagement in small-group active learning settings. It can be a general active learning method, but also specific forms that are used at the VU, like problem-based learning, case-based learning or team-based learning.
More about this course
Contents and results
Dates, costs and contact
