Teaching in Active Learning Classrooms at a Canadian University

Abstract

This article describes an evaluation of a campus wide Active Learning initiative to examine instructors’ experiences teaching in Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) at a Canadian University. ALCs at this university differ in size, layout, and audio-visual equipment. The participants were 21 instructors from different disciplines who had taught courses in various ALCs who were interviewed to explore their pedagogical decision-making, teaching experiences, and their access to ALC-specific, pedagogical and technological support. Instructors explained their classroom management strategies specific to ALCs, discussed how physical and technological features of different ALCs impacted the extent of necessary revisions to their courses, and highlighted logistical issues in being assigned to ALCs that may fit the requirements of their courses. Based on the findings, we pose a series of recommendations to offices responsible for classroom assignment, academic departments, and centres for faculty support and development. Overall, instructors would benefit from advance notice of ALC room assignment, just-in-time and self-directed opportunities regarding integrating Active Learning strategies in instruction, and access to orientation sessions and multimedia documentation developed for different types of ALCs.

Keywords

• active learning
• active learning classrooms
• faculty development