Dawson Active Learning Community

About

At Dawson College, faculty have been increasingly turning to Active Learning as an evidence-based instructional approach. To support this growth, the college has invested resources in developing Active Learning classrooms and in the development of pedagogical resources and capacity through a number of faculty and researcher-lead initiatives – including the development of the Dawson Active Learning Community (DALC) and SALTISE.

Active Learning Info from the DALC

What is Active Learning?

Active Learning is a student-centred pedagogical approach that juxtaposes more traditional instructor-centered approaches to teaching. Active Learning is effective at improving deep learning, conceptual understanding and exam grades while reducing failures (for a comprehensive meta-analysis of Active Learning in STEM fields, see Freeman et al., 2014, available at https://www.pnas.org).

Dawson is considered a leader in the educational community when it comes to Active Learning, and as a result a number of faculty have received local, provincial and national awards.

The Active Learning Classroom

Classrooms that are purposefully designed for Active Learning can complement good pedagogical strategies, can make the orchestration of complex activities easier for the teacher, and can offer affordances that both learners and instructors can leverage in the construction of knowledge.

Using an iterative design process driven by teachers and based on a program of research into the use and effectiveness of the spaces, Dawson has developed a series of classrooms specifically for Active Learning.

Active Learning classroom development at Dawson has been a faculty-driven process that is both iterative and research-based – a process that has been heavily influenced by Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR – see research by WR Penuel and BJ Fishman). As a result of this process several design principles have emerged as core principles of our classroom designs.

The AL Environment

Find out how the DALC provides students with the ideal environment for collaborative learning thorough Active Learning Classrooms – Click here

DALC Fellows Program for the Upcoming Semester

The DALC Fellows is a program that provides full-time Dawson faculty members with support to develop knowledge and discipline-specific activities to be used in the active learning (AL) environments; and, it includes a modest amount of release time to do so.

DALC Resources Produced

How to Get Students to Read Before Class

Reflective Writing (RW) is a way to get students to come to class prepared for a more meaningful engagement with the content/topic in a particular class.

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Active Learning Instruction and Active Learning Classrooms At Dawson

The goal of this document is to be a resource for both new, and not so new, teachers who use Active Learning instructional methods and the Active Learning classrooms at Dawson.

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Eight big ideas on active learning from evidence-based research

Designing and Implementing (Orchestrating) Instruction

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Latest Fellows

Winter 2019

Chris Whittaker (DALC Coordinator)
Andreea Stanciu-Panait (Math)
Cory Legassic (New School/Humanities)
Catherine Payne (English)

Fall 2018

Chris Whittaker (DALC Coordinator)
Jeff Gandell (English)
Andreea Stanciu-Panait (Math)
Anthony Berkers (Phys Ed)
Cory Legassic (New School/Humanities)
Catherine Payne (English)

Learning Communities

Dawson Active Learning Community – DALC

About

Active Learning Info from the DALC

DALC Resources Produced

How to Get Students to Read Before Class

Active Learning Instruction and Active Learning Classrooms At Dawson

Eight big ideas on active learning from evidence-based research

Latest Fellows

Past Events