Extraordinary circumstances created by the global pandemic have forced students and teachers around the world to engage in a new way. A group of CMU scientists set out to explore if any lessons can be learned from this unique situation.
In collaboration with the University of Washington, Stanford, Harvard, and others, the research team uncovered some very useful findings.
Active learning is more effective than traditional lectures and readings - Image Credit: NDAB Creativity / HDR tune by Universal-Sci
Activating students via discussions, interactive activities, feedback, and AI-enhanced technologies ensured enhanced academic performance in comparison to conventional lessons, readings or lectures.
As the global pandemic forced instructors to discover new methods to engage students, interest in active learning increased. Schools and instructors adapted to the extraordinary circumstances by incorporating new technology, while students dealt with the negative psychological influences of quarantine, restlessness, and inattention caused by distant learning.
The global pandemic also exposed that traditional educational techniques may not be the greatest way to study, but uncertainty remained about what active learning actually is and how to utilize it to teach, spark interest, and excite students.
The researchers incorporated several studies in their paper. Research subjects span from children to college-age adults. The results show how and when different active learning approaches can be productive and engaging and suggest ways to integrate lessons learned during the height of the global pandemic.
Nesra Yannier, one of the authors of the paper and systems scientist at the CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute, explains that their research was designed to uncover what we learned from teaching and learning during the pandemic and what could be brought back into the classroom.
The outcomes from the collected studies demonstrate that active learning puts students in control of their courses. Instead of passively collecting knowledge as is usual in contemporary approaches to education (such as lectures and readings), active learning strategies encourage students to create thoughts and get feedback through interactive settings.
One of the studies revealed the advantages physical activity has for creativity and creating new ideas. Another study ascertained that while college students think they learn more in traditional lectures than through active learning approaches, they actually do not. Active learning delivers superior results.
The combined research also determined that successful active learning methods include not just hands-on and mind-on approaches but also heart-on approaches, which provide more emotional and social support.
A little help from artificial intelligence
In addition to the previously mentioned research, the study also incorporated a unique research project where the team looked at the effects AI can have on students' learning abilities.
It turns out that incorporating an AI-based virtual assistant to question students, stimulating critical thinking and engaging them in discussions, boosted learning in hands-on activities while also helping teachers.
The researchers conducted controlled tests to see how much children learned while interacting with NoRILLA, a mixed-reality learning platform in which children perform and interpret real-world experiments with personalized interactive feedback in an earthquake table, ramps, or other physical devices, with the AI turned on and off.
Interestingly when the artificial intelligence was turned off, the students learned far less.
"We've done a lot of research around this," Yannier said. "If we don't have the AI guidance on, the children are not able to understand the underlying concepts, and the learning doesn't translate into the real world."
The researchers hope their paper will stimulate educators to include more active learning in their teaching methods.
Ken Koedinger, a co-author of the paper and professor of human-computer interaction/psychology, stated that there is so much richness in this field that he and his colleagues can continuously create improvements to make it more productive and enjoyable for a very long time.
The paper is published in Science. Be sure to check it out for a more comprehensive overview.
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