Active Learning and POGIL

 It is common to say things in a way the remind us of Yogi Berra's quotes. For example: " Nothing difficult was ever easy" is claimed to be one of his quotes.

"Active Learning" is one of those as by definition learning is an activity. There is no opposite or any other way, can you imagine passive learning. The idea of course is to make a difference between learning through listening to a lecturer, where the learner appears to be passive, not moving, not asking questions, not even taking notes. Just thinking. Thinking then becomes a passive state as if the thinker is doing nothing.

Let's think about this for a moment.

As I am typing this essay and thinking about "Active Learning" I am being creative, or al least trying to be, and imagining a situation in the classroom where I teach. I share with my students some background of the topic, some historical introduction if needed, some connections to other subjects in the course, the topic itself, and asking them to think. One way to ask them to think, is me asking questions.  Questions like: Do you have any questions? Can you please ask me a question? If the topic or idea involves some mathematical solutions then I can ask a question related to the solution of a problem, based on the equations developed during the lecture.

This format is what is normally not defined as "Active Learning". So what we can do is to turn things around and start by asking a question, by setting some framework to the question, and then ask the students -by themselves or in groups- to develop the answer and theories behind the answer. Such an approach is named POGIL in chemical education. It stands for Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning. For more information about POGIL click here.

With different names similar approaches have been developed with great success, one worth mentioning is David Sokoloff at the University of Oregon who has worked for many years in physics education. The main idea in STEM is the hands on experience. The need to do real experiments, beyond the typical demonstration, where students gather data and learn how to interpret it to the degree where laws can be created to explain the results observed in the experiment. For more information about Active Learning in Physics click here.

Now we face a new challenge with online teaching, how can we make STEM education active online when the instruments to perform experiments are not widely available? What kind of video resources can be produced to replace the hands on experience? This is a challenge that we all are facing, and many great educators are busy working and developing new materials, many of which will prove to be invaluable resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a tragic event but we can get something good from it, specially in education. Now hybrid platforms are being created that will help a wide variety of students. Students with different needs that before were boxed in to a single, uniform, educational setting. Now students and teachers will have options in their communication. Asking all the time, are we being active learners?

COVID Innovation

The Curiosity Rover 

SARS-2/COVID-19 has been the most traumatic worldwide social experience of, at least, the past fifty years. The pain and suffering both individually and collectively as many people around the world have suffered the illness and in a way, too many death has been superlative. The economic collapse has been, as well, individually as collectively devastating. No doubt about it.

We should not minimize the devastation but we must, also, see the opportunities. We must not be defeated in our spirit or our souls. We must keep finding ways to make things better and to help our society to improve. This is where science education in particular and education, in general, play an important role. This is a unique opportunity to innovate. To innovate how we teach and how we learn. We can't continue in the XXIst century teaching based on XXth century methods and programs. Institutions of learning have to be transformed radically to meet the needs of our society today. In many ways, large research universities have made changes but in a way, these changes are insignificant compared with the task at hand. Some small Liberal Art Colleges are not surviving due to the demands of this new paradigm. 

As I think, Yogi Berra said: "The future ain't what it used to be".  We can't use the past to guide us without analyzing when and how history will repeat or transform. Some have said (Couros. 2015 page 12) that we are living in a "Printing Press" moment which can be a strong metaphor as there are more than changes in the system of production there are elements of change in the mentality of the citizenry. The new iGeners born and raised in the midst of the information technology age aka the internet are being educated following pre-internet methodologies even though educators are using information obtained there. Education is more than the information provided, information that can be obtained at a minimum cost. What education institutions must provide today is the nurturing of curiosity. The atmosphere and platform for individuals to create and innovate. Guided by experienced individuals who can help, mentor, and direct. This is the new role of the professorship in higher education.

 Science has always been about curiosity. This is why teaching science is so apt for the changes in education. For many years teaching has worked against curiosity in the name of curricular content. Teachers are used to replying to students' inquiries with "wait a moment I have to cover this topic we talk about it later" and "the later" never comes! Curiosity is delicate, easy to break and nullify, it is imperative for teachers to nurture creativity through reinforcing curiosity.