This presentation discusses the possibilities of active/participatory pedagogy. The objective is to engage students to better understand the spatialities of local, regional, national and global issues with the goal of becoming responsible global citizens. To do so, a tactic called engaged discomfort is employed. This strategy involves encouraging students to move outside of their comfort zones and engage in the geographies/learning spaces of discomfiture, which include classroom activities, fieldwork, and community service.
76walker180-Stimulating Active Student Learning Through Strategies of Engaged Discomfort
1. David M. Walker. Ph.D
Geographer
Division of Social Sciences
College of Southern Maryland
La Plata, MD 20646
STIMULATING ACTIVE STUDENT LEARNING
THROUGH STRATEGIES OF ENGAGED
DISCOMFORT
Session 7.6 January 12, 2018
2. DON’T LECTURE ME
• Don’t Lecture Me: Rethinking How College Students Learn (Barsegian, 2011)
• “Today’s students are active learners rather than spectators” (Luna Scott, 2015)
• “…twenty-first century instruction is based on three pedagogical principles
personalization, participation and productivity” (McLoughlin and Lee, 2008).
• “Forming working relationships with teachers and partners in the community, and
working collaboratively with peers will also contribute to productive learning
experiences”. (Bolstad 2011)
• Flipping the Classroom..”students are doing the lower levels of cognitive work (gaining
knowledge and comprehension) outside of class, and focusing on the higher forms of
cognitive work (application, analysis, synthesis, and/or evaluation) in class, where they
have the support of their peers and instructor” (Brame, 2013)
3. 21ST CENTURY PEDAGOGY
• make learning relevant to the ‘big picture’
• Teach through the discipline
• develop lower and higher order thinking skills to encourage
understanding in different contexts
• encourage transfer of learning
• teach how to ‘learn to learn’ or metacognition
• promote teamwork
• exploit technology to support learning
• foster students’ creativity
5. • Landscape analysis
• Urban geography/ Urban gardens
• Brownsville/ community mapping
• Mapping your own data
• Immigrantification
• Think pair and share
• Where does your breakfast come
from?
• Media responses
• Group Country Presentation
EXAMPLES OF ENGAGED DISCOMFORT COURSE
WORK: WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY
In the Classroom In the Field
9. IMMIGRATIFICATION OF MORSE
ROAD AND NORTHLAND
Walker, David M. Dr. and Schemenauer, Jack (2014) "Immigrant
Social-Economic Landscape Changes and Ethno-Racial Border
Formation in Columbus, Ohio," Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and
Resolutions: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 4.
14. IMMIGRANTIFICATION
The process whereby immigrants
revitalize and save blighted
neighborhoods (abandoned due to
irresponsible suburban development
and white flight) through
investments in small businesses
and the re-creation of vibrant urban
landscapes.
15. • Port Tobacco Creek: Stream flow
analysis
• Port Tobacco: Erosion and
Landscape Changes
• Zekiah Swamp: Cycles and
Patterns in the Biosphere
• Graveyard Fieldwork:
Gravestone weathering, St.
Ignatius Catholic Church
Graveyard
• Think pair and share
• Group Chapter Presentations
• Article/Chapter Report and
presentation
EXAMPLES OF ENGAGED DISCOMFORT COURSE
WORK: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY/LAB
In the Classroom In the Field
29. ENGAGED DISCOMFORTURE
• “Normally when we go on a college fieldtrip [field excursion/theory-to-
practice/active pedagogy] we are always in a very controlled environment–
we don’t really get a chance to get our hands dirty– but on the Cincinnati trip
we did just that… we went to places I would never have gone…”
30. POSITIVE OUTCOMES
: STUDENTS LEARN …
• To work in groups
• To communicate with diverse sets of people
• How what they learn in school is relevant to what goes on in the world around them
• How to use technology
• Problem solving
• How to communicate
31. FUTURE ENGAGED DISCOMFORT OPPORTUNITIES
• The revitalization of urban space: Murals and Public Art in D.C. and Baltimore
• Immigrant communities and economic recuperation of first tier suburbs in
Maryland and Virginal
• Coastal Processes and Terrain: Calvert Cliffs
• Atmospheric disturbances/re-photography: Downtown La Plata:
• Development and Landscape changes Hughesville Campus’ New Health
Sciences Facility
32. TRAVEL STUDY POSSIBILITIES
• Grassroots Renewable Energy Movements: Nicaragua
• Implementing Geographic Technology to Preserve a Paradise: Costa Rica
• Bio Geography, Organic Coffee and Indigeneity in Oaxaca, Mexico
33. REFERENCES
• Bolstad, R. 2011. Taking a ‘Future Focus’ in Education – What Does It Mean? NZCER
Working Paper. Wellington, New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
www.nzcer.org.nz/ system/files/taking-future-focus-in-education.pdf (Accessed
01/10/2018).
• Barseghian T. 2013 Don’t Lecture Me: Rethinking How College Students Learn. Mind
Shift: How we Learn (on line) https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/09/13/dont-lecture-
me-rethinking-how-college-students-learn/ (last accesses 01/10/2018)
• Brame, C. 2013. Flipping the classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching
(online). http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guidessub- pages/flipping-the-classroom/ (Accessed
01/10/2018).
• Cynthia Luna Scott. 2015. THE FUTURES of LEARNING 3: What kind of pedagogies for
the 21st century? UNESCO Education Research and Foresight, Paris. [ERF Working
Papers Series, No. 15].
• McLoughlin, C. and Lee, The three p’s of pedagogy for the networked society:
personalization, participation, and productivity. International Journal of Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 10-27.
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ895221.pdf (Accessed 01/10/2018).
• Walker, David M. Dr. and Schemenauer, Jack (2014) "Immigrant Social-Economic
Landscape Changes and Ethno-Racial Border Formation in Columbus, Ohio," Cultural
Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 4. Available at:
http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cecr/vol1/iss2/4
