Abstract:

We learned almost nothing of what we now know how to do well by sitting in a classroom and listening to it or by reading it in a textbook. So how did we learn most of it? There’s only one way, from when we’re born until right now, from learning to eat and walk and ride a bike to deriving the Navier-Stokes equations.

If educational researchers agree about nothing else, they agree that people learn best by doing things and reflecting on what they have done and getting help if they need it, not by watching and listening to someone else telling them what to do. While a good lecture has the power to instruct and even motivate students, if lecturing is the only thing that happens in a class, the chances are that much less learning is happening than would happen if other more active methods were mixed in. The question is, what can we do to get all of our students (or trainees or employees) fully engaged without losing control of the lesson, even if the audience is huge? This presentation describes and illustrates several proven techniques for achieving this goal, points to the research supporting the techniques, and outlines what can go wrong and how to make sure it doesn’t.

Biography: