I’m about a month behind in getting this news out here, but here it is. Last month a paper that some colleagues and I published in the Journal of Geoscience Education (JGE) was selected to receive the 2018 Outstanding Paper Award. The paper in question was titled “Instructional Utility and Learning Efficacy of Common Active Learning Strategies.”  Our intention with the paper was to review many of the teaching strategies that are commonly used in an active learning classroom and devise a rubric that would allow us to assess them in terms of their utility and the evidence to support their efficacy in promoting student learning. The latter was accomplished through a literature review and based on the strength of reported studies in isolating the strategy and assessing it’s effectiveness. To determine utility, we used our experience as teachers and education researchers to create a list of categories and criteria that impact the ease of use or utility of a specific strategy. These criteria included things like prep time, assessment ease, class time required, and availability of examples. Based on our nine criteria and resulting rubric, we were able to give each strategy a utility score.

Our hope with writing this paper was that instructors could this as a guide to instructional change in their classrooms. If they are just starting to implement active learning, they could find strategies with high utility and began to incorporate those as a first step. High utility strategies like peer instruction and think-pair-shair require minimal prep time and resources, are easy for students to use, promote interation, and can be used often and in large classes. Instructors who are already using such high utility strategies could use the paper to get more information on more involved strategies that they may be looking to incorporate into their courses. Strategies like teaching with models or jigsaw activities take more prep time and often require more class time, but many of them have research validating the value of their use in promoting student learning.

If you are interested in reading the paper, click on the journal cover below. It is also linked on my Publications page. And you can find more about the JGE awards on the National Association of Geoscience Teachers page.

Update: Here’s a picture of all the authors receiving an award plaque from editor-in-chief Anne Egger at the NAGT luncheon during the Geological Society of America annual Meeting in Indianapolis.