Bonwell, Charles C. and James A. Eison. "Active Learning: Creating Excitment in the Classroom."
ERIC Digest September 1991. Print.
Learning can happen absolutely anywhere while doing anything, it's only dependants are the teachers and the students. The fact that learning can happen doesn't necessarily mean that it does happen. Education systems are continuously searching for ways to improve the way students learn. Charles Bonwell and James Eison argue the point that active learning has the greatest positive affect on students. Active learning, in their definition, is actively engaging a student in the subject matter, i.e. solving problems, free-writes, class discussion, etc. The idea is to offer students different ways of learning seperate from traditional lecture.
Bonwell and Eison did an excellent job arguing their point on active learning. Active learning provides that new and exciting feel that help many students to better learn what is being taught. The authors have gained a realization of this matter and brought forth ideas to help teachers better understand the need for this approach to teaching. To create a more appealing cloud of thought, Bonwell and Eison included various different case studies and research information to better back up their argument.
I feel that the push to incorporate active learning in classrooms should continue for years and years to come. Bonwell and Eison hit the nail right on the head when they said, "[...] a significant number of individuals have learning styles best served by pedagogical techniques other than lecturing"(Bonwell and Eison). The majority of students, in any type of learning environment, would prefer to be actively engaged in a subject rather than sitting in a seat listening to a monotone lecture for an hour. Not only does active learning eliminate this, it causes students to better retain and understand the information being taught.
Learning and understanding a subject can be the most brutal, stressing event that many will experience. Information doesn't automatically fly into someone's ear and they completely understanding. For many, it takes more than someone talking about a subject to fully learn that subject. For this to happen though, a teacher must also put themselves out there and open themselves up to new approaches in teaching. For some teachers though, would this task be one of great ease, or great diffuculty? The only way to find out for sure is to travel into the belly of the beast. A person must physically see what active learning can do if it is used correctly. Teachers aren't always open to the idea even if it can greatly benefit students. There are a great deal of students who already believe that active learning consists of jotting down notes while a teacher gives a presentation. If they were to travel beyond that point and experience new ways of learning that would challenge them to analyze more and think critically, then would that make a difference? In my opinion the answer is yes, but the question is one to bring up a great deal of reasonable doubt.
Hi Garrett:
ReplyDeleteGood job with this bibliography. From what I understand, the ANSER charter school emphasizes both service-learning and active learning. I'll be curious to see how your observations and work in this environment complicate and speak back to the research you're finding. Keep it up!
Hi Garrett:
ReplyDeleteGreat job with getting your source up, at the beginning of the writing. From what you were able to write on this it would seem to be a very beneficial reading, and the only thing I could speak to with your sourcing is a little more info in the body of the paragraph; next to quotations, and references to the author. I don't want to speak to much about this as if I am some sort of professional MLA writer, (feel free to see my writing and recognize I need to do the same) but your original set up was great so it's the only thing I felt might be important for the future.
Your summarizing of the source you found worked well, and I think you touched on the basic feel of what they were trying to write about. Toward the end of the paragraph is where I felt like it really hit the crux of what your understanding of their writing was, and where you are going. As someone who likes introductions, a little bit out of the norm I enjoyed how you began the paragraph stating in an interesting way that pulled me in to want to see where you were going. The only thing that I would think might be helpful to the reader is stating straight out of the gate that your emphasis is going to be on "active learning", instead of beginning with whether or not learning happens, then jumping to active learning.
Analyzing your source is something that I have recognized can really be an area of difficulty when trying better to understand this concept of writing analytically. Beginning with the 2nd paragraph you really pulled your sources into your paper, letting us know their opinions, and analyzing what it was they were trying to say. There was a couple questions I had while reading that section though, you mentioned they do an excellent job arguing their point, but right there I wanted to know more. I was thinking well what were the arguments? Basically maybe just fleshing out a bit more what the authors specifically said about those subjects.
Your reflection at the end of the paper I feel like was definitely the strongest section of this bibliography. I felt your personality in the writing and was able to feel one of those "against the grain" moments we have talked about with writing analytically. Honestly the only thing I could say could make this part shine a bit more is come to a point where the questions you ask are not necessarily answered to allow more room for reflecting thinking and a push to take you to another source to attempt to nail down even more perspective on your subject matter.
I hope this is helpful to you, please note anything I pointed out could be reworked a little better are things that while reading yours I reflected on my writing and recognized I have a lot of area to grow. Great job though, keep on doing what you're doing!