BE OUR GUEST: ACTIVE LEARNING STEPS FORWARD AS A RESPONSE TO THE WORLD'S RAPID RATE OF CHANGE

Russell G. Warren is president of Northeast Missouri State University.

A survey of 400 business leaders which I conducted in the mid-1980s revealed that executives and educators have remarkably similar ideas about what students should be learning. The respondents confirmed the need for broad behavioral skills and attitudes to achieve overall success in business and in meeting non-occupational lifelong goals. Among these skills and attitudes were good communication and writing skills, interpersonal and listening skills, critical thinking, a willingness to assume responsibility and the ability to function independently. They also recommended changes in methods used in teaching general education. They agreed that, if broad behavioral skills and attitudes are to be learned, students must be actively involved in the learning process.

Higher education has long realized its obligation to help students develop these broad skills and attitudes, in addition to providing factual information. This is especially important today given the constant change and updating of factual material. It is estimated that by the year 2020 the amount of new information will double every 73 days. Universities have addressed the development of these skills, especially writing and critical thinking, to varying degrees, but more often than not, those of us who are teachers tend to conclude that we have no particular expertise to teach these attitudes and broad skills, leaving their development up to the graduates as they progress through life. We now know that if our graduates are to be successful outside the workplace as well as within it, we must accommodate their broad educational needs, even if it means relearning our methods and refining our objectives.

Fortunately there is a way of making certain our students learn these broad traits and skills, a relatively simple method of teaching called "active learning." This method has been used for centuries, although too sparingly. It departs from the traditional class presentation and prompts greater student participation in the learning process, whereby the student accepts greater responsibility for learning and the teacher becomes a facilitator. Active learning involves the mind, not just the memory. While the lecture is still effective in some instances, students learn by doing, not merely by listening. Active learning teaches students to teach themselves, causing them to think, communicate, solve problems and increase skills associated with individual responsibility, time management, individual planning and interpersonal skills. This is especially true if universities provide ample opportunities for students to learn by interacting with each other.

Does this mean that today's students don't need to learn facts? Certainly not. Factual information is critical to career success. No one wants a doctor, accountant, city manager or teacher who is not exceptionally knowledgeable in their field. However, most of today's college students are capable of learning much of this information by being held responsible for outside assignments, working in small project teams and using interactive computers, thereby enabling the classroom to be used for addressing complex factual material and conceptual issues while allowing for more interaction between teacher and students. Case studies used in learning business and law, and science laboratory experiments provide good examples of such instruction.

As the benefits of using active learning techniques are discussed, many colleges and universities across the state are accelerating active learning. In fact, Missouri is fortunate to be the home of one of the leading national experts in active learning, Charles Bonwell. He is former director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Southeast Missouri State University and now director for the Center for Pharmacy Education at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, students enrolled in an environmental policy class discover what it is like to serve on the city council, to serve on one of the Governor's task forces, or to testify before a U.S. Senate environmental committee. At Northeast Missouri State University we currently have more than 750 students involved in undergraduate research with individual faculty supervision. This allows students to make discoveries and use their skills, imagination and intellect to solve problems, and when a paper is submitted for publication or a presentation is made at conferences across the country, both the professor and the student receive recognition and credit for the work.

Northeast believes this issue is so important that we have committed our entire campus to developing an active learning environment, a commitment which extends far beyond academics. We believe that all members of the University community, not just the faculty, are teachers, and that students learn in all of their university experiences. We believe our gardeners can help students learn about plants and trees, while our financial aid staff can help students with personal finance. Our coaches can help our athletes learn teamwork, self-discipline, time management and leadership skills by the very nature of athlete-coach relationship.

What is the relevance of these observations? Simply that the major impediment to using active learning as a method of teaching is that many students get to college without having had any sustained experience at being involved in their own learning. They are accustomed to a passive setting and fear taking the initiative and making mistakes. All of us, parents, educators, legislators and school board members, must encourage students in kindergarten through grade 12 to continue their development toward active learning so that by the time they reach college, they are familiar with this method of learning.

There is cause for optimism. First, we must applaud Governor Carnahan and our state legislators for their recent passage of The Outstanding Schools Act. The act will, among other things, assist schools throughout Missouri in reducing student-teacher ratios, lead to the establishment of academic performance standards in the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary for students to succeed, and subsequently lead to statewide assessment to determine how students are doing in relation to these standards. Also, we are seeing greater emphasis being placed upon activities involving the child in the learning process in grades K-12. For instance, some elementary school teachers are beginning to utilize elements of the "whole language" philosophy, which emphasizes reading, writing, speaking and listening skills by actively involving the student in the entire learning process. In addition to reading a book, students respond by acting out the book, writing a journal from the point of view of one of the characters or meeting in small groups to discuss their feelings about the book.

As educators, our solemn obligation to our graduates is to prepare them for lifelong learning and instill in them the broad skills and attitudes that will allow them to adapt to change and be successful in every aspect of their lives. Teaching these skills and attitudes in our children's earliest years will establish a pattern of participation in their own learning. Only then can we empower our students to reach their full potential as individuals and as citizens.