Beyond the classroom space
Active learning makes you work harder, learn more and enjoy the whole process.
A student recently asked my colleague, “Ma’am, when are you going to start teaching again?” My colleague was flummoxed, because she had not missed any classes. As the conversation progressed, she realised that because the last few sessions had been used for student presentations, the perception was that she was “not teaching.”
This made me wonder, again, about the expectations we bring to the world of formal (classroom) education.
As students, we expect to walk into a class and be taught. On the other hand, teachers are constantly told that they need to step back and allow for “active learning”.
In other words, their role is to create spaces and opportunities for learning, rather than deliver something passively. While lectures still have their place in the process, they are now seen as just one mode of learning. It’s another matter that they are the most obvious choice, and there is resistance from both teachers and students to go beyond that.
Presentations
So let’s say, for a moment, that teachers (some of them at least) have taken a step away from the podium and made space for students to participate in the process. When presented with such a situation, students are often confused. Some of them, like the one quoted here, might see it as the teacher stepping away from responsibility. They are unsure how to use that space. And everything depends on their readiness to occupy.
When students are asked to make presentations, the usual attitude is (and I am willing to be corrected) that they have to do something for a grade; the exercise is usually about fulfilling a requirement for the course; at best, it is an opportunity to demonstrate learning; at worst, it is an exposure to ridicule and judgment.
For the rest of the class, it is a time to sit back and, perhaps, pay less attention. However, from the teacher’s point of view, it is something else entirely, and it might help to keep that in mind the next time you have the chance to occupy the front of the classroom.
Active learning
Time is “given over” to students so that they can become more active participants in the process called learning. Yes, it is to demonstrate learning, but it is also to spark the kind of sharing that can only happen among peers.
When students occupy the space usually taken by the designated teacher, they have the opportunity to enter the conversation from that side, bring in questions that have not hitherto been raised, and to take charge of how they learn.
I suppose this is particularly pertinent at the college level, when the dependence on teachers should diminish considerably. And we are not talking about situations where teachers are absent or lack sufficient competence. In fact, it is often the most competent teachers who insist on students getting more involved in class.
This could happen through group projects, discussions during class, student presentations or demonstrations.
The teacher’s responsibility is to ensure that the activity relates to the concepts that need to be understood or applied, and to bring a focus to the discussions. While the teacher might not lead the activity or discussion, she or he certainly has to think it through carefully and plan to steer it if it does not take off on its own.
Shift in attitude
More and more classrooms are turning into spaces where learning opportunities are created — predominantly directed or designed by teachers, but catalysed and fulfilled by students. It takes a shift in attitude to begin seeing these ideas for what they are. You will realise that you have to work a lot harder in a class where such active learning is called for, and the end result is that you learn a lot more. Moreover, if you allow yourself to really get involved in the process without thinking too much about the outcome (marks), you are also likely to enjoy it.
So, perhaps in response to the student who initiated this reflection, I would say teaching does not end when a teacher stops talking in the class, and learning begins much before the lecture and goes on much after. Learning happens in the spaces that a teacher (or anyone/anything else) leaves for engagement, activity and thinking. We need to recognise those spaces and work with (and within) them.
The author teaches at the University of Hyderabad and is the editor of Teacher Plus magazine. Email: usharaman@gmail.com
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