Space Matters! Maximizing Active Learning Classrooms for Student Collaboration and Engagement

March 12, 2024, 10:00am to 11:00am
Intended audience: 
Academic Support Staff, Faculty, Graduate Student Instructors, Instructors
Part of series: 

Liam Aiello & Ezra DalyBerkeley’s Active Learning classrooms (ALC) are teaching and learning spaces that allow the instructor to customize the physical learning environment to meet pedagogical needs. In an ALC, the room design, flexible furniture, writing surfaces, and technology allow for multiple pedagogical activities. Research also suggests that students in ALCs outperform their peers in traditional classrooms (Cotner et al., 2013). ALCs have been intentionally designed to encourage and foster the use of active learning strategies - except, they don’t come with a manual about how to make that happen! In this workshop,  you’ll learn how to get the most out of your classes in ALCs. 

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Describe what an Active Learning Classroom is 

  • Outline the advantages of an active learning classroom

  • Identify learning strategies that offer students multiple ways to engage with the course content, their peers, and the instructor

This session will run for 45 minutes, with an additional 15 minutes reserved for questions.

This event will take place in-person at Social Sciences 110. Please RSVP if you're planning to join. 

➡️ Register for this event here!⬅️

***Registration for this session will close one hour before the session***

Unable to join us for this workshop? Check the RTL events calendar for future offerings of this workshop. Engage with our asynchronous offerings on this topic: Active Learning Classrooms or receive customized assistance by emailing teaching@berkeley.edu, or by scheduling a consultation.

Liam Aiello is the Active Learning Consultant at the Center for Teaching and Learning. He holds a PhD from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and was most recently a postdoc at UC Davis, where he studied how teachers learn to adopt more discussion-based instruction. He began his career as a 5th grade humanities teacher, and his time in K-12 classrooms continues to inform his work in higher ed settings. His interests include active learning, inclusive teaching, and practitioner inquiry in service of pedagogical change.

Ezra Daly is the Classroom Technology Services and Zoom for Instruction lead for Research, Teaching and Learning.  In 1998 he began working with interactive video courses shortly after the University of California installed the first videoconference classrooms.  Since the inception and success of the active learning "test kitchen" at Berkeley in 2010, he has been part of the team that expanded the program to six general assignment active learning classrooms currently in use.  Ezra's interests include enhancing student experiences by employing technology to foster meaningful interaction within our classrooms and with people beyond the confines of the physical locations.  He believes peer to peer learning is more inline with the ways students will work in their post-graduation careers.

Host

Research, Teaching, and Learning (RTL)

Series description

The "Teaching Effectiveness" workshop series is designed to empower educators with diverse strategies and tools across a wide range of topics, including course design, student engagement, active learning, and more. Join us as we explore evidence-based practices and discover innovative approaches to elevate your teaching effectiveness.