education and training
Changing Course: How Faculty
Can Better Engage Students
BY SHAWN R. DREW
“I hear, and I forget; I see, and I
remember; I do, and I understand.”
Chinese Proverb
There is a paradigm shift in the traditional role of a professor, from that of the “sage on the stage” providing instruction in didactic lecture format to that of the
facilitator or the “guide on the side.” The transformation
away from the teacher-centered approach to the student-centered approach is due, in large part, to advances in
communication technology (e.g. the Internet) ( 1). However,
many faculty members today have limited experience in
modern pedagogical skills that confer an engaged learning
environment since they, as students
themselves, were taught in the traditional form of didactic instruction.
Below are various strategies that
science faculty can use to engage
their students.
Uri Treisman, a graduate student at the University of
California, Berkeley, wanted to understand why African
American students were not doing as well in calculus as
their Asian American counterparts. Through extensive
observations and careful data analysis, Treisman concluded that the major difference was that African American
students typically worked in isolation, while Asian American students worked together and learned from each
other. Treisman then emphasized group learning and a
sense of community in his teaching, and the results were
dramatic—the African American participants outperformed
not only other underrepresented minority students, but
their Caucasian and Asian American classmates as well.
The Treisman model of peer collaboration is widely used today and exists
in many closely related forms on some
200-plus college campuses.
Providing challenging work and
fostering peer collaboration are
useful strategies that engender an
academic atmosphere in which
students thrive. However, they should
be considered with some degree of
caution, as faculty members recognize that there are subtle caveats. For
example, challenging curricula may
lead to disengagement and students feeling overwhelmed if it is not
tempered with an appropriate level
of support where the learning goals
are clear and achievable. Likewise,
if peer collaboration is inappropriately conducted, it may
undermine engagement if it threatens students’ self-effi-cacy and/or trust in peers. The student who is known as
the “teacher’s pet” may not be well received among his
or her classmates for a collaborative project; therefore,
faculty must be mindful of the interpersonal relationships
between students and dispel favoritism.
“Because of the nature of discovery- based disciplines,
science faculty
members have two
additional tools to
engage students:
i) active learning
and ii) the research
classroom.”
Strategies for
Engaging Students
There are many strategies that
faculty from any academic discipline can use to promote student
engagement for high academic
achievement. One approach is
providing students with challenging work. This enables students to
think critically about new concepts,
explain their reasoning, defend
their conclusions, and explore alternative strategies and
solutions. Student engagement and achievement are promoted when instruction is rigorous (and yet still achievable)
to allow students to develop and maintain their intellectual
ability. Intuitively, students become disengaged when the
work seems unchallenging and boring.
Another method for student engagement is peer collaborative assignments, where students work in groups
for shared interactions instead of working in isolation.
Research shows that peer collaborations provide better
learning experiences ( 2). For instance, in the late 1970s,
Active Learning and Laboratory Research
Because of the nature of discovery-based disciplines,
science faculty members have two additional tools to
