Active Learning is the Goal

College math classes have a reputation of being lecture-based. Actually it might be even more accurate to say that the classes are typically lecture-only. Why? There are probably many reasons: lecturing is easy (especially after you have taught a class many times), math professors grew up listening to (and learning from) lectures, math professors are often unfamiliar with teaching methods and strategies, and lecturing fits nicely with the time and content constraints of the modern sequential college pre-calculus curriculum. There are probably many other reasons. But the point is, we tend to fall into the lecture rut in college math classes.

Lecturing is 1) only effective/interesting in small doses and 2) not the most efficient method of transferring knowledge. Freeman et al. found that active learning was better than lecturing in helping students pass (learn?) as shown in the accompanying graph.

So none of this is new, of course. But finding the best methods for incorporating active learning into my classrooms is a constant challenge. Finding the time during the already-packed semester to incorporate the ideas, motivating students to take advantage of the activities, and convincing students that they might actually learn something are all big hurdles. All of the challenges are amplified by the fact that my students are often well behind their peers in terms of mathematical preparation. The lack of content knowledge is coupled with many years of bad experiences in math classes. Not only do I need to find the best ways to teach the material but I also need to help students believe that they can learn the material.

One last factor that I must confront with my students is cultural. My classes typically have between 40-70% Navajo students with the rest being Caucasian. My Navajo students rarely speak up to ask questions and often take a backseat, in terms of participation, to the Caucasian students who are more comfortable voicing their thoughts. I realize these are broad strokes but they tend to be true and force me to consider ways to involve my Native students. Active learning in small groups provides some hope as I can group my students such that everyone's voice is heard.