Engage Active Learning Episode 3

In this presentation, Christina Rangel discusses the concepts of Socratic Questioning and Problem-Based Learning. Problem-Based Learning is a student-centered approach where students actively engage in learning activities, make decisions in the learning process, and take on more responsibility. It involves guiding students' inquiries and encouraging them to generate meaningful questions and find answers to discover new knowledge. Problem-Based Learning uses real case scenarios and allows students to interpret data, construct models, develop ideas, and collaborate in problem-solving. It has benefits such as increased knowledge acquisition, active participation, increased interactions, and skill acquisition. However, there are challenges like classroom management, availability of materials and resources, and time allocation. Technology can contribute to collaborative learning and help build a learning community. Examples of Problem-Based Learning activities include analyzing news or soci Hello. Welcome to Engage Your Students with Active Learning. I'm Christina Rangel, a full-time faculty member with the School of Health Sciences and a Dallas College Faculty Fellow and Mentor. I know your time is precious, and I thank you for listening to this presentation. Whether you are new to active learning or experienced in it, I think you will discover something new today for immediate use based on whatever classroom modality or discipline you teach. Before we begin, I'd like to give you a chance to go and grab something to write with and something to write on. This way you can take notes and can participate in some of the activities I have planned for this presentation, or you can just doodle. But before you run off to grab those things, remember to press pause. When you're ready, unpause and we'll keep going. Welcome back. Okay, so today we're going to look at Socratic Questioning and Problem-Based Learning. We're going to look at some of the features and their definitions, and we're also going to understand the impact of using Socratic Questioning and Problem-Based Learning on students and faculty. So what is Problem-Based Learning, also known as PBL? Not to be confused with Project-Based Learning, which is also PBL. Whereas Problem-Based Learning is used in Project-Based Learning assignments, Project-Based Learning assignments and Problem-Based Learning assignments are not the same thing. And I'll show you an example of the difference later on in this presentation. So what is Problem-Based Learning? Well, Problem-Based Learning is a pedagogical and learning approach. Students are actively engaged in learning activities. They are allowed to make some level of decisions in the learning process. And they take on more of the learning responsibilities than in the traditional classroom. Problem-Based Learning activities guide students' inquiries. They generate meaningful questions. And they find answers to discovering new knowledge. So what describes the PBL approach? Well, PBL approaches are Constructivist Pedagogy. And if you have been able to join in previous episodes of the Active Learning Series, we have covered the Constructivist Pedagogy. In the Constructivist Pedagogy, learners make meaning from their experiences. And so that's why a Problem-Based Learning, just like other Active Learning strategies, uses a student-centered approach. But what's unique to a Problem-Based Approach is that it utilizes real case scenarios. And we will cover that briefly, too. In a Problem-Based Learning approach, students interpret data. And they may construct models. And that's the Project-Based Learning example we'll look at later on in the presentation. They also develop ideas. And they collaborate and problem-solve. Problem-Based Learning approaches allow students to explore questions or problems by experimenting, predicting, and drawing conclusions. So you may have garnered from those examples that this is a pretty exciting strategy for our STEM faculty to utilize, and the rest of us, too. So, just like with any new learning strategy, it has both benefits and challenges. So let's take a look at those now. So what are the benefits of a Problem-Based Learning classroom? Well, the benefits are that your students are going to have an increased level of knowledge acquisition. They also are going to be active participants in the teaching and learning process. It's going to, like all the Active Learning strategies, going to increase the interactions between students and students, students and teachers, and students and content. And they're going to acquire skills in this type of learning environment. Okay, well, it's not all benefits. There are some challenges. So let's look at those and see how we can address those challenges to make it more appealing for someone to try this strategy in their classroom. So one of the challenges is the belief in, or I should say the lack of belief in one's competencies to successfully implement a Problem-Based Learning classroom. And by this, I mean specifically classroom management. Because of all the activity that will be going on, some faculty are hesitant to adopt this strategy because they're fearful of their own lack of classroom management skills. They don't think that they can successfully manage it, all that's going on in this type of environment. Another challenge is materials and resources, and not just having them, but having enough of them and having quality materials and resources, not like some that are run down or shouldn't even be used. So for this challenge, I would strongly recommend that you reach out to your leadership and get them involved in helping you obtain the materials and resources you need for your classrooms in a Problem-Based Learning environment or any learning environment. For another challenge was time allocation. So for this challenge, it specifically mentioned when I was doing research on the benefits challenges of a Problem-Based Learning classroom, time allocation. Now this doesn't mean, you know, the time that we have, but of course we can make it mean that too. But it specifically meant in the articles that I read, the demands of the curriculum. So, and this would be true for any new learning strategy, but we're going to focus on this one for Problem-Based Learning because if your curriculum is demanding, either because you have an accreditor that has dictated your curriculum requirements or the state has dictated it, or your department has dictated a demanding curriculum, then you might not have enough time left to incorporate Problem-Based Learning strategies in the classroom. So again, with that, I would work with your leadership and with your fellow faculty members to try to come up with some solutions to tackle these challenges. And as far as classroom management, I would always recommend going to veteran professors because they are very helpful in that area. And just, like, take as many recommendations that you can from them and then pick the ones that work best for your teaching and learning style and use those classroom management approaches in your Problem-Based Learning classroom or any classroom. Okay, so what does a Problem-Based Learning activity look like? Well, students are given an open-ended problem to solve. And open-ended problems are very big in active learning strategies. And this is true also in a Problem-Based Learning activity. So initially, they're working alone before they work in a group. And this is also a common theme in active learning strategies where you want the student to initially work on their own. This way, they can reflect and they can develop their own voice where they get to the point where they're comfortable sharing their voice with a group. So now they're ready to work with a group. And then from that point, they're going to decide what type of research to conduct and, if necessary or if applicable, what technology to use. So how does, speaking of technology, how does technology fit in a Problem-Based Learning classroom? Well, it contributes to a collaborative learning environment. And collaborative learning is a very big component of active learning strategies. And it is a 21st century skill. And that's why you'll see that skill being promoted and developed in an active learning classroom. It encourages responsibility and ownership of that student in their own learning. It builds a learning community and marketable skills. And what I like about this learning community idea is that it's not just the students and you're off to the side. No, it's you and the students learning together. And the way we're going to build this learning community and these marketable skills is through group interactions and through self-confidence and enhanced communication. So earlier, you may have remembered I said, you remember we need to focus on the pedagogy part of this type of classroom. And that's because when you decide to implement a Problem-Based Learning approach in your classroom, you think pedagogy first. Then you complement it with digital tools or other tools after you have thought out the pedagogy. Because it's what's most important in this learning environment. So what are examples of Problem-Based Learning activities? This is my favorite slide to share with you. Because there's so many exciting assignments here to try. And again, I would never say to try to do this all at once. Just pick one and try it out in one class or maybe one course and see how it goes. But let me go through these activities and I'll point out which ones are my absolute favorite ones and why. So first, we start off with the news or social media story. We don't use case studies in a Problem-Based Learning classroom because news and social media stories are more relevant. They're more current. So we use those over the case studies. And then it's also an observational field trip. And I love that it says observational. Because this is something you can assign to your students. You don't have to tell them. I don't know if we really have the capacity or the resources to do that. So this is one way to circumvent those constraints. So you can, like, assign an observational field trip as an assignment to your students. And you can have them go to a museum. Or you can even have them go to a park. Or something along those lines. And what they're going to do, and, by the way, if you can't tell, this is one of my favorite assignments, is they're going to have them take pictures along the way on this field trip. And, you know, you can give them parameters. Or you can have them, like, you know, just, like, whatever catches your attention, take a picture of it. But what they're going to do is they're going to take a picture. And now you get to see their thought process. And this becomes more meaningful to them. Because it's like a journal. So it's very personal. But, yes, they're learning. And they're learning. And they're learning. And they're learning. And they're learning. And they're learning. 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In a problem-based learning classroom, and this one I'm really excited to show you because I can also give the example of an activity that can be both problem-based and project-based. And this is it. So in this example, this is a project-based learning assignment. But it has a problem learning component. So building a model bridge. If all we asked our students to do was, okay, give me the blueprint and explain the blueprint and give me a reflection on the challenges and what you found that was exciting, that would be the problem-based part of it. But then to actually have them make a prototype of it and then have them test that prototype, and then based on the feedback that they get from other experts, how to refine that prototype, that would be the project-based part of it. So you see how just with the, if you just keep it at a certain level, it's a problem-based learning activity. But if you give it a little bit more oomph, then it's a project-based learning activity. In the traditional classroom, that would look like learners solving textbook problems. Okay, in a problem-based learning classroom, you would ask your students to construct a marketing campaign for a new product or a new company. In a traditional classroom, you'd give them case studies or essays or ask them to write a report or complete a worksheet using already existing or established products or companies. Okay, so now that we've looked at problem-based learning classroom, let's look at Socratic Questioning. Because questioning is a feature in all active learning strategies, or at least in most of them, problem-based learning included. But you can even take questioning to another direction in an active learning classroom. And we call this type of questioning Socratic Questioning. For many of our students, the college classroom is their first exposure to different ways of thinking. So what is Socratic Questioning? Well, you may have already guessed, it gets its name from the Greek philosopher and teacher, Socrates, who was a big proponent of self-generated knowledge. It is a 3,000-year-old time-tested teaching strategy. So you can bet or have a pretty good feeling it's going to work. In the Socratic Questioning approach, the teacher pretends they don't know much about the topic or that they don't know the topic well. And they're questioning their students to evaluate their knowledge. That's really the purpose behind their questions. They're going to use discussion, debate, and they're going to evaluate and analyze that discussion, debate, to promote independent, higher-level thinking and ownership of learning. So like we've done with previous active learning approaches, we're going to describe this approach and do a little contrast with the traditional classrooms also. So the Socratic Questioning approach is not a traditional classroom approach. There's not a sage on the stage or a guide on the side. There's not someone at the front telling you, this is what you need to write down. This is what's going to be on the test. There are no lectures. And that's the beauty of active learning strategies, especially in Socratic Questioning. You don't have to worry about creating a lecture, prerecorded or in person. There is no need of remote memorization. You're not asking your students really to memorize anything in particular. And there's a shared dialogue, not just between your students, but between you and your students. So even though the teacher is asking probing questions, the students are asking questions too. And just like we've seen in some other examples, the teacher is included in this activity, in this engagement. They're part of this learning community. The teacher is a participant, but they are the guide of the discussion. So they are both a conductor and they both are a member of this learning community. And again, in active learning strategies, open-ended questions are a key feature. So that's what we use here. But you will see that we also use some different types of questions too in the Socratic Questioning approach. What I really love about this strategy is much like think-pair-share, it can be your go-to active learning strategy because we're faculty. We have bad days and times too, and sometimes we're not on our game for very good reason. And yet we do want to go into our classroom and give it something. So we can go to one of our go-tos. In my last episode, I gave the example of being someone who loves the karaoke. And like in the world of karaoke, we have our go-to songs. We sing when we don't really know what else to sing, but we want to sing. That's how I feel about certain active learning strategies. Think-pair-share and Socratic Questioning because I know that I can either plan them or I can use them on a whim. So that's why I'm a huge proponent of this strategy. And again, the beauty of this is no answer key, no PowerPoint slides, and no lesson plan is required. Okay, so we've looked at some of the features, some of the challenges, and some of the comparisons to other active learning strategies in contrast to the traditional classroom. So what are the benefits? Well, Socratic Questioning encourages critical thinking and self-directed, effective learning. It builds lifelong skills because, as you'll see, students are learning to share their voice and to do it in a respectful manner. So even if students don't agree with each other, they're going to learn in a healthy way to disagree, to agree to disagree. And it's implemented both in person and virtually, which is another common theme of active learning strategies, that it can be both in person and virtually. It revitalizes the traditional teaching with digital tools. Even without the digital tools, it revitalizes traditional teaching. But particularly with them, it enhances it that much more for a modern audience. And to hit on the point again, that it can be in person and virtually, and that includes synchronous or asynchronous, meaning you can chat synchronous or asynchronously or utilize discussion tools in similar manners also. It draws out the shy students. And again, that's because one of the common features of active learning strategies is that you start off with the individual part first. And that way, they're ready for working as a group. And it's that working as a group that builds community and a sense of belonging. And sense of belonging has a strong correlation to student success outcomes, increased student success outcomes. Okay, so we've looked at the benefits. We've touched on some of the challenges, but let's go over these three here. The first is the method may appear antagonistic. And what that means is because there are times you might have to use a closed-ended question, or it's even just that you're asking so many questions that your students, if you don't let them know why you're using that approach, they may think that they're being challenged, and not in a healthy manner, but more in like a being picked on sense. So you want to convey to your students why you're using this approach. And there are several ways you can do that. You can put it in a syllabus. You can do it right before the lesson or right before you start doing the Socratic questioning activity. And you can also remind them throughout the semester that this is the approach you're going to utilize in your classroom. And so if you don't do those things and they don't know why you're questioning them like that, they might view you as an interrogator, not a facilitator. But we've covered those challenges, and so we know the solutions. So as long as you implement those solutions, you're good to go. So what does a Socratic questioning activity look like? Well, it's so funny because I went ahead and went to Google or YouTube, and I looked up some examples that people had posted, and it was quite fascinating. So when you have a moment or two, go see what that looks like. And I think that will inspire you more, motivate you more to try it at least once. So it's carefully questioning students until they discover answers on their own. It uses prompts and questions where students are guided to explore their own thought processes. So they are engaged, and they are active, willing participants in the learning process. It is a student-led discussion that is guided by the teacher, and students will ask each other questions, but they're also going to ask you questions. So it's going to be moving around. It's a very active learning environment. If an outsider were to look in on your classroom, they would see a very active, very robust class, one that's engaged in the activity. And it is collective learning and discovery. Again, that learning community. This isn't just the students who are learning and discovering. It's the instructor, too. So if you don't know where to begin, here are some Socratic questioning tips. First, plan your questions. Now, this isn't a heavy ask. Although some active learning activities take more planning than others, this takes minimal planning. You want to have your questions planned, but you also want to be aware. It may not go that way, but just in case, you still have this outline of questions ready to go. So at least if nothing else, it gets you started. And when you hit a certain maybe block, it keeps you going. You're going to, again, explain the purpose of using questioning so that your students aren't intimidated. You're going to include as many students as possible. You don't want the same one or two, three students answering all the questions. You want to keep it moving around the room. And you can do several strategies to make this happen. You can use a popcorn approach where they pick on each other to keep it moving around the room. You can even direct them not to pick on someone who's already been picked on. You can randomly pick names, like out of some type of drawing. Maybe have everyone's name on a piece of paper or have it on a Popsicle stick and just pull it out of a cup. But however you decide to keep those questions moving around, when the student is asked a question, allow them at least 15 to 30 seconds for their responses. They need time to formulate. They need time to process what they've been asked and to formulate a response. Follow up on students' responses and then summarize the key points often. And you can do this, again, both virtually and in person. Either way, you have to find some way not just to summarize them but to write them out. That was recommended that you write out the key points and that you do that often. Okay, so what are examples of psychotic questioning activities? This is one I selected for this presentation, and it comes from an English literature teacher. And in this scenario, the teacher asks, Was Hamlet's act of revenge for his father's death justified? See how it's an open-ended question? Then it challenges the student to, you know, form their opinions and form their assumptions. And then, you know, to develop more questions. And it is this question-and-answer sequence that serves as a formative assessment, and it should be utilized as a formative assessment. It wasn't recommended that it be used as a summative assessment because we want it to be low-stakes, a low-stakes learning moment with multiple benefits. The point of reading, the students will learn, is so they can engage in this activity because they're going to want to be a part of it. So the benefit of this activity is that your students will become more engaged with the content. They will read because they are excited about this activity and want to be a part of it. And they can't be a part of it if they haven't read because they won't be able to scrutinize or analyze what their peers are saying during a Socratic questioning activity. So there are three types of questions that are used in Socratic questioning. And these questions are vital to developing critical thinking skills in your students. So the three types are procedure, preference, and judgment. In the first type, procedure, there is a correct answer. In the second type, preference, there is no correct answer. It truly is the student's preference. And then the third type of question is a judgment question where it's the best answer, which we'll see is not necessarily the same thing as a correct answer. So you might want to like pause the video for a moment and think about three examples for each of those types of questions that you might ask in one of your classrooms. When you're ready, unpause the video and we'll move on. Okay, welcome back. All right, so let's come up with an example for each of these questions. So in one of my episodes, I gave the example of ice cream. So for the procedure question I asked, is cream a main ingredient found in ice cream, true or false? So the correct answer is true. Cream is a main ingredient in ice cream. So that's a procedure question, but that type of question, you just use like either to start the Socratic questioning activity or when there's at a certain point you needed to like redirect it, that's when you use those types of closed-ended questions. So preference and judgment are the majority of the questions you'll be asking in a Socratic questioning activity. So for preference, where there's no correct answer, okay, what is your favorite flavor of ice cream? So some of us are going to say strawberry. Some of us will say vanilla. Some of us will say chocolate. All right, so there's no correct answer. It's truly just what you prefer, judgment. Okay, based on your budget, what is the best type of ice cream to buy? So depending on your budget determines whether you're going to get Blue Bell or whether you're going to get Great Value or something in between. So those are some three fun examples for the different types of Socratic questioning questions. So you might have already caught on to why students like a Socratic questioning classroom. It's because teachers respect their viewpoints and that teachers are showing a genuine interest in what their students are thinking. And because this environment is one that sustains and creates an open, safe space for intellectual development and for them to conquer a demanding learning environment. And in this type of teaching and learning classroom, students feel like the teacher acknowledges the value of what they contribute in the classroom. Okay, before I end, I just wanted to share my excitement with, you know, when we talk about, you know, making connections and tying in topics to each other, we're talking it like, you know, what we want to bring out of our students. But I get excited, too, when I do it on my own as a faculty, as a long life learner. So there are some add-ons to active learning strategies. You can use them with each other. So you would see in the active learning series that I coupled two strategies in the series. But I could have, there's the varieties, the possibilities were truly endless. So I want to end this presentation on this note, that you can use think-pair-share, the flip classroom, peer assessment, brainstorming, simulation games. You can use these in a psychotic learning environment, in a problem-based learning environment. And you can really do what you need to do or want to do in your classrooms to make it what you and your students want and to gain the benefits and outcomes you're looking for. So, again, I just want to say thank you for joining me in today's presentation. I hope you see why active learning approaches, including problem-based learning and Socratic questioning, are student-centric. And how digital tools, although they aren't the focus or they aren't the originating purpose of a problem-based learning environment, how they can enhance the learning experience. And I hope you recognize the benefits of integrating other active learning techniques with each other. Thank you for your time and for sharing it with me. Have a fabulous day.