【汉开成美】侧记：教师职业发展工作坊（四）

 

主动学习的方法

Active Learning Approaches 

12月7日，学院为全体教师组织了一个关于在课堂中运用主动学习的方法工作坊活动。工作坊以解释主动学习的概念开始，并且对被动学习提出了批评。被动学习是一种传统的教学方式，教师讲课时不与学生进行互动，既不接受也不提供反馈。传统的教学方式单调，在教室里形成了一种等级制度，使教师成为权威或者说是不容置疑的人。因此，学生被扼杀了创造及创新能力，把自己限制在低等级的思维过程当中。

On Tuesday, December 7th HKA organized a workshop for the teachers. The workshop focused on utilizing active learning approaches inside the classroom. The workshop started by explaining the idea of Active Learning by presenting a critique on Passive Learning. Passive learning is the traditional way of teaching where the teacher delivers a lecture to the students without engaging with the students, neither receiving feedback nor providing any. The conventional method of teaching is monotonous and creates a hierarchy inside the classroom, where the teacher stands an unquestioned figure of authority and knowledge. Consequently, students kill any creativity or innovation, restricting themselves to low-order thinking processes.

19世纪法国画家的未来主义教育画

A futuristic painting of education by a French artist from the 19th century

这幅画展示了19世纪法国艺术家想象的教育未来。书本被放入由老师操作的机器中，书本上的信息通过一种复杂的技术传输到学生的大脑中。这确实是个好主意，以这种方式，信息被完全的毫无差异的传送给每一名学生。然而同样的信息会导致没有创造力和创新能力的同质学生出现。

The painting shows the future of education as imagined by French artist of 19th century. The books are being put into a machine operated by the teacher, the information from the books is then transmitted to the brains of the students through sophisticated technology. It does seem to be a great idea. In such a fashion, the information is identically transmitted to each of the students without any discrepancy. However, identical information would create homogenous students without any creativity or innovation.

主动学习是以建构主义为基础的，即学习者将他们的理解建立在已存在的观察、经验和学习上(Piaget, 1943)。帮助学生将新摄取的信息与先前的知识联系起来是很重要的，否则，这些信息将不会提供有效学习所需的连续统一性。因此，教师有责任引导学生以循序渐进的方式学习，帮助他们获得和保留复杂的信息。 

Active learning is based on constructivism, i.e., learners build their understanding on preexisting observations, experiences and learning (Piaget, 1943). It is important to help students connect the new information with the knowledge existing earlier. Otherwise, the new information would not make the continuum required for efficient and effective learning. It is therefore the responsibility of a teacher to lead the path for learning in a progressive way that helps students to attain and retain complicated information.

根据神经科学的研究，学生在没有参与的情况下听课会使他们的大脑变得不那么活跃。下图的大脑扫描显示了静坐20分钟后大脑的活动与积极参与学习(例如辩论、讨论、演示、演示等)的大脑的活动情况对比。

According to neuroscience, students attending a lecture without participation makes their brain inactive. The brain scans reveal the activity of the brain after 20 minutes of sitting quietly versus a brain that is actively involved in learning, for example, a debate, discussion, demonstration, presentation, etc.

两个学生的脑部扫描：不活跃(左)和活跃(右)

Brain scan of two students：inactive (left) and active (right) 

这些证据否定了在课堂上重读或划重点的重要性。这些技术已经过时，只能帮助记忆，而不是理解概念。并且，这些知识的保留程度因教师使用的教学方法而异。传统的方法只能促进低层次的思维。美国当代著名的心理学家，布鲁姆所研究的分类饼图可以帮助我们更容易理解，并为教师们提供了一条坚实的道路。 

The evidence nullifies the importance of rereading or highlighting during the lesson. The techniques are obsolete and only help in memorizing, rather than understanding the concepts. Retention varies across pedagogical techniques used by the instructor. The conventional methods only promote low-order thinking. The Bloom’s Taxonomy Pie makes it rather easier to understand, and paves a solid pathway for the teachers to follow.

 

布鲁姆饼图

Bloom’s Pie

这个饼图包含了两种半圆，上面那一半圆代表了因传统教育方式而导致的低阶的思想，例如，被动学习。下面的那一半圆则代表了高阶思想。简单地说，记住、理解，和应用一个概念是学习者在被动学习过程中所被限制的。而主动学习则增强了学生的分析，评估和创造力。它帮助学生以知识为基础从而在所提供的信息当中得到适用于个人的解释。随后，学生会处理数据并复制一个与储存在大脑中的新旧信息相连接的精炼的想法。这个过程中发展了信息之间的联系，并加强了记忆。这个论点可以根据下面的图表进一步阐述。 

The ‘Pie’ comprises of two semi-circles, the upper half of the circle represents low-order thinking which is promoted through traditional methods of teaching, i.e., passive learning. The semi-circle below represents the higher-thinking order. Simply put, remembering, understanding, and applying a concept are what learners are restricted to through passive learning. Active learning enhances the analysis, evaluation, and creative skills of the students. It helps students to build on their knowledge and have their personal interpretation of the information provided. The students then process the information and reproduce a refined idea that is connected to the new and old information stored in the brain. The process develops connections amongst the information and retention is enhanced. The argument can be further elaborated based on the following chart;

不同教学方法的留存率

Retention rates across teaching methods

这个图标显示了主动学习对比被动学习具有较高的保留率，在一个典型的40分钟的讲座之后，学生们平均只能记住所讲5%的内容。由视频、文本阅读和讲座组成的课程最多能提高35%的知识留存率。这些数字对学习者来说描绘了一个可怕的场景，那就是在其目的上适得其反，效率低下。相比之下，主动学习技术的留存率更高。讨论可以有50%的留存率，在现实中实践概念和教授他人分别可以达到75%和90%。

The chart shows that active learning has higher retention rate compared to passive learning. After a typical lecture in a 40-minute class, an average student would only remember 5 percent of it. A lesson comprising videos, text reading, and a lecture will have 35 percent of retention at best. These numbers depict a horrifying scenario for learners, which is counterproductive and inefficient in its purpose. Contrastingly, active learning techniques are recorded to have higher retention rates. A discussion can have 50 percent retention, practicing concepts in reality and teaching others can go as up as 75 and 90 percent respectively.

教师应该采用有利于学习者的教学策略。学生应在学习中扮演积极的角色，而教师则是学习的促进者，而非主导者。学生应注重发现、探究和基于问题的学习，将已有的知识联系起来，并在此基础上构建有效的学习。教师可以在课堂上使用的例子很少，比如学生互查、案例学习、辩论赛、情景表演、学生教学、小组谈论等。 

Teachers should employ learner friendly strategies to teach. Students should have an active role in learning, with the teacher being an activator of learning instead of being an instructor. Students should focus on discovery, inquiry, and problem-based learning to make connections with preexisting knowledge and construct upon it for effective learning. A few examples that teachers could employ during their lessons are peer review, case studies, debates, role-plays, teaching, discussion as a leader, etc.

重要的是，主动学习不需要任何昂贵的资源，它既不需要庞大的教室，也不需要复杂的技术。它可以应用于任何场景，并在所有学科和年龄适用。对于这种教学模式的另一种误解来自于学生，他们会认为采用主动学习方法的课程并不“严格”；甚至，与传统教学方式相比，他们无法在这样的模式下学习。有研究对比了一些来自上海的学生。这些学生被分成两组，教授同样的课程，一组使用主动学习的教学方法，另一组则采用传统的教学方法。随后，研究者们对这些学生进行了相同的测试，结果是：主动性学习者的测试成绩高于传统学习者。因此，教师们只要知道自己在做什么，他们就必须坚持自己的教学方法。 

It is important to remember that active learning does not require any expensive resources, neither huge classrooms, nor sophisticated technology. It can be applied in any scenario, across all disciplines and ages. Another misconception arises amongst the students, where they start thinking that classes employing active learning methods aren’t ‘rigorous’ and there is no learning compared to the traditional teaching style. The research compared students from Shanghai who were divided into two groups. One group was taught the same curriculum using active learning techniques, while the other was taught using conventional methods. The former perceived as if there was no rigorous learning. Later, the students were tested with an identical exam and the test scores for active learners were higher than those of traditional learners. Therefore, teachers must firmly stick to their revolutionary practices, as long as they know what they are doing.

综上所述，主动学习方法已通过实验、研究和神经科学的进一步巩固，被科学地证明是有益的。教师应该支持学生的学习，并做出对学生未来最有利的改变。老师们拿到的的讲义中包含226种方法，他们可以在课堂中采用这些方法来促进主动学习。

Concludingly, active learning approaches are proven to be beneficial scientifically through experiments, researches and further consolidated through neuroscience. Teachers should support the learning and incorporate changes that are best for the student’s future. The handout given to teachers contains 226 methods that teachers can employ inside their classrooms to promote active learning.