What is it about?
In higher education the emphasis is on active learning (or engaging students as they learn). We argue here that what students learn and how they use that knowledge should be at the forefront of transformation efforts. We also show that our approach is likely to actively engage students.
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Why is it important?
The current emphasis on transforming STEM learning by addressing how it is taught (that is by including teaching practices that engage students in their learning), can result in student learning that is fragmented and not useful in new situations. We advocate an approach that first addresses what students should know and what they should do with that knowledge, known as three-dimensional learning (3DL). 3DL has been shown to result in deeper learning that is more likely to be used in subsequent courses, and more equitable outcomes. By engaging students in the scientific practices that require them to use their knowledge, we show that students are also more likely to be actively engaged in their learning. However, instruction that focusses on active engagement only is not correlated with use of knowledge and can result in so-called hands-on-minds off learning.
Perspectives
This is an important paper because it addresses the fallacy in the STEM education community that merely engaging students actively in learning the same old material in an active way will result in improved and useful learning. There is no doubt that these evidence-based instructional practices can improve grades for struggling students, but the community needs to think about what and why students are expected to learn these materials. Especially in gateway courses (which is where the data in this paper are taken from) that are traditionally a mile wide and an inch deep, we know that students typically emerge with fragmented ideas and disconnected skills that are not particularly useful. Our hope is that by showing 3DL is associated with student engagement (but not the reverse) we can further the case for rethinking what we want our students to know and to do, and to re-design our introductory STEM courses using the 3DL framework. We chose to publish the reviewers’ comments to show how we tried to alleviate the concerns of several of the reviewers that we were not supportive of active learning, to send the message that active learning is not enough.
Melanie Cooper
Michigan State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Beyond active learning: Using 3-Dimensional learning to create scientifically authentic, student-centered classrooms, PLoS ONE, May 2024, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295887.
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