Student Anxiety In Active Learning Classrooms: Apprehensions and Acceptance of Formal Learning Environments

Abstract: The number of undergraduate students who report having at least one disability has been on the rise since the 1970s.  With the advent of Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), understanding how these students experience ALCs is critical to creating a fair and equitable experience for all students.  This report examines one subset of this population: students with some form of diagnosed Anxiety Disorder.  Although over a quarter of U.S. undergraduates report a diagnosis of some kind of Anxiety Disorder, this study focused on those who sought disability accommodations in their ALC classes.  Using structured interviews, this paper identifies 11 elements of the classroom and learning experience that affect such students in these spaces.  The paper concludes with recommendations instructors can take to improve the learning experience for students with anxiety and anxiety disorders.

Orientation and Social Inclusion: Supporting Students With Visual Impairments In Active Learning Classrooms

The percentage of undergraduate students in the U.S. who report a visual disability is over 3.5%, and worldwide over a billion people claim a significant visual impairment.  As more higher learning institutions build Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs), it’s critical to understand how these students experience such a different style of learning environment.  Although many students do not register their visual impairments at the college level, this report examines students who sought disability accommodations in their ALC classes to help them succeed.  This paper identifies two dimensions, divided into 10 factors, of the learning experience in these classrooms and how students faced the challenge of these environments.  To improve the future learning experience for these low-vision students, a list of pedagogical recommendations is included

Social context matters: Predicting outcomes in formal learning environments

Research on different types of classroom spaces indicates that innovative classrooms can improve student learning. This study explores one mechanism that may underlie this effect, namely the social context of teaching and learning. The validated Social Context and Learning Environments (SCALE) survey was administered to over 2000 undergraduate university students in both traditional and active learning classrooms, and multivariate mixed-model analyses were conducted to determine whether social context was predictive of student learning. The data indicated that two out of four social context subscales predicted student learning in both types of learning environment, while one subscale had no significant relationship with student learning, and one subscale was predictive of outcomes in active learning classrooms but not in traditional spaces. From a theoretical standpoint, these results show that social context may be one of the mechanisms through which different learning spaces impact student learning outcomes, while from a practical perspective, they indicate that instructors may be able to support their students’ learning by working to improve the social context in their classrooms

Measuring Social Relations in New Classroom Spaces: Development and Validation of the Social Context and Learning Environments (SCALE) Survey

This study addresses the need for reliable and valid information about how the innovative classrooms that are becoming more common on college and university campuses affect teaching and learning. The Social Context and Learning Environments (SCALE) survey was developed though a three-stage process involving almost 1300 college students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a four-factor solution that measures formal and informal aspects of student-student and student-instructor classroom relations. The resulting 26-item instrument can be used by instructors and researchers to measure classroom social context in different types of learning spaces and to guide efforts to improve student outcomes

Academic Analytics and Data Mining in Higher Education

The emerging fields of academic analytics and educational data mining are rapidly producing new possibilities for gathering, analyzing, and presenting student data. Faculty might soon be able to use these new data sources as guides for course redesign and as evidence for implementing new assessments and lines of communication between instructors and students. This essay links the concepts of academic analytics, data mining in higher education, and course management system audits and suggests how these techniques and the data they produce might be useful to those who practice the scholarship of teaching and learning

Pastiche of My Subjectivity / A Poem

Poem parodying post-modernism and its jargon by way of "Song of Myself"; also published on cover of Exquisite Corpse #35 (1992)

A guide to teaching in the active learning classroom : history, research, and practice /

Index.Comprend des références bibliographique

Academic Analytics and Data Mining in Higher Education

The emerging fields of academic analytics and educational data mining are rapidly producing new possibilities for gathering, analyzing, and presenting student data. Faculty might soon be able to use these new data sources as guides for course redesign and as evidence for implementing new assessments and lines of communication between instructors and students. This essay links the concepts of academic analytics, data mining in higher education, and course management system audits and suggests how these techniques and the data they produce might be useful to those who practice the scholarship of teaching and learning