Academically Adrift

Arum, Richard; Roksa, Josipa

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226028576.001.0001

Cited by 471 publications

(68 citation statements)

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“…Most of the strategies described in this paper have been previously identified as best practices for teaching or implementing active learning (Armstrong 1998;Arum and Roksa 2011;Felder 2011;Brent 1996, 2010;Higbee and Burney 2011;Johnson 2003;Lake 2001;Michael 2007;Moffett and Hill 1997). The difference, and the main contribution of this paper, is that this is the first study that directly and empirically links the strategies to also reducing student resistance to active learning.…”

Section: Comparison With Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 83%

Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning

et al. 2018

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Background: Research has shown that active learning promotes student learning and increases retention rates of STEM undergraduates. Yet, instructors are reluctant to change their teaching approaches for several reasons, including a fear of student resistance to active learning. This paper addresses this issue by building on our prior work which demonstrates that certain instructor strategies can positively influence student responses to active learning. We present an analysis of interview data from 17 engineering professors across the USA about the ways they use strategies to reduce student resistance to active learning in their undergraduate engineering courses. Results: Our data reveal that instructor strategies for reducing student resistance generally fall within two broad types: explanation and facilitation strategies. Explanation strategies consist of the following: (a) explain the purpose, (b) explain course expectations, and (c) explain activity expectations. Facilitation strategies include the following: (a) approach non-participants, (b) assume an encouraging demeanor, (c) grade on participation, (d) walk around the room, (e) invite questions, (f) develop a routine, (g) design activities for participation, and (h) use incremental steps. Four of the strategies emerged from our analysis and were previously unstudied in the context of student resistance. Conclusions: The findings of this study have practical implications for instructors wishing to implement active learning. There is a variety of strategies to reduce student resistance to active learning, and there are multiple successful ways to implement the strategies. Importantly, effective use of strategies requires some degree of intentional course planning. These strategies should be considered as a starting point for instructors seeking to better incorporate the use of active learning strategies into their undergraduate engineering classrooms.

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Section: Comparison With Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 83%

Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning

et al. 2018

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“…This appears a productive way forward in both conceptualizing and measuring critical thinking as a practice. Current assessment instruments show negligible gains in critical thinking during the college years (Arum & Roksa, 2011). The growing prominence of dialogic teaching and learning and the further development of ways to measure growth in critical thinking as discourse will hopefully change this picture.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Thinking as Discourse

Kuhn¹

2019

Human Development

107

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Less than it is an individual ability or skill, critical thinking is a dialogic practice people engage in and commit to, initially interactively and then in interiorized form with the other only implicit. An argument depends for its meaning on how others respond. In advancing arguments, well-practiced thinkers anticipate their defeasibility as a consequence of others’ objections, in addition to envisioning their own potential rebuttals. Whether in external or interiorized form, the dialogic process creates something new, while itself undergoing development. This perspective may be useful in sharpening the definition of the construct of critical thinking and in so doing help to bring together the largely separate strands of work examining it as a theoretical construct, a measurable skill, and an educational objective. Implications for education follow. How might critical thinking as a shared practice be engaged within educational settings in ways that will best support its development? One step is to privilege frequent practice of direct peer-to-peer discourse. A second is to take advantage of the leveraging power of dialogue as a bridge to individual argument – one affording students’ argumentative writing a well-envisioned audience and purpose. Illustrations of this bridging power are presented. Finally, implications for assessment of critical thinking are noted and a case made for the value of commitment to a high standard of critical thinking as a shared and interactive practice.

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“…But recent media reports have deemed critical thinking development in higher education to be unsatisfactory (Belkin 2015;De Vise 2012). Arum and Roksa (2011) studied the degree of improvement in critical thinking from freshman to senior year at 24 higher education institutions, and deemed the results insufficient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: A Vision

Ennis

2016

Topoi

297

182

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This essay offers a comprehensive vision for a higher education program incorporating critical thinking across the curriculum (CTAC) at hypothetical Alpha College, employing a rigorous detailed conception of critical thinking called ''The Alpha Conception of Critical Thinking''. The program starts with a 1-year, required, freshman course, two-thirds of which focuses on a set of general critical thinking dispositions and abilities. The final third uses subject-matter issues to reinforce general critical thinking dispositions and abilities, teach samples of subject matter, and introduce subject-specific critical thinking. Subject-matter departmental and other units will make long-range plans for incorporating critical thinking in varying amounts in subject-matter courses, culminating in a written Senior Thesis/Project involving investigating, taking, and defending a position, which reinforce critical thinking abilities and dispositions and increase subjectmatter knowledge. Teaching approaches used in the program are involving and based on the principle, ''We learn what we use.'' Both summative and formative assessment are employed as appropriate. Coordination and support are extensive. Objections and concerns are discussed, and alternatives, including possible transitions, are considered. An extended review of research supports moving toward CTAC.

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Academically Adrift

Cited by 471 publications

References 0 publications

Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning

Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning

Critical Thinking as Discourse

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: A Vision

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