Undervisningsformer för blended learning/Undervisningsformer som engagerar studenterna emotionellt

Att engagera studenterna emotionellt innebär att arbeta med deras motivation att lära sig och att bli involverade i den kurs de läser.
Det finns självklart många sätt att arbeta med detta på. Att ta upp kontroversiella ämnen, låta studenterna debattera olika ståndpunkter, att knyta undervisningen till problem och utmaningar som studenterna själva upplevt och står inför. På den här sidan samlar vi idéer och förslag på konkreta undervisningsformer och arbetsuppgifter vars syfte är att engagera och motivera studenterna i deras studier.

1. Arrangera seminarier om ett tema som kan vara kontroversiellt inom ditt ämne

Till seminariet finns ett antal uppgifter samt förslag på litteratur. Var och en ska läsa in sig på litteraturen och därefter rekommenderas det att uppgifterna diskuteras i grupp. Var och en förbereder sedan självständigt ett svar till varje fråga (inga skriftliga svar ska redovisas). Under seminarierna kommer frågorna att diskuteras i olika konstellationer och former. Var och en ska därför vara beredd att muntligt redogöra för sina svar inför resten av gruppen. Det kommer att bli både diskussioner i helgrupp, smågrupper och debatter.

Strategies for implementing user generated content

Teaching format for involving students' affective responses: Roleplay café conversation

See more information from: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/cafe-conversations

Rationale

In order to engage students in discussions that are controversial and have a formative learning effect at the same time triggering students' affective responses can be a useful experience.

Often, presenting a controversial topic to students for discussions does not lead to affective responses. A discussion format that involves role play can help students to overcome certain barriers to express their own opinions in front of others. By taking on a role they can create a distance to themselves and their personal beliefs which allows them to utter affective responses.

Additionally, students start to develop an awareness for different perspectives as they may need to represent a position that is different to their personal beliefs and/or opinions. Thus, in a sense, triggering affective responses includes a rational thinking process that balances pros and cons of different points of view.

Procedure

1. Teacher selects a topic (controversial or not) and designs "roles"

The topic should be designed so that it allows at least two different standpoints. For each of the standpoints a corresponding role is designed.

2. Students prepare for their roles

The students are split into groups that each have their own role. Students prepare for the discussion by studying the roles and their viewpoints. The students should, particularly, hypothesize how this person would feel about the chosen topic that they will be discussing during the role-play café conversation.

In a blended learning format or online course, students collect and discuss possible arguments that fits the personality online by using collaborative writing services in the cloud (notes, blogs etc.).

3. Roleplay: Café Conversation (2 forms)

In the roleplay café conversation, students discuss about the topic while representing their assigned roles. The discussion starts with each student introducing their role. Then the actual discussion is starts usually last around 20 minutes.

Here are two examples of possible forms of organizing a café conversation:

- Jigsaw: The class is divided into groups so that each group has students representing each of the different roles. In this form, there will be many Café Conversations happening simultaneously.

- Fishbowl: There is only one discussion that includes one student from each of the different role groups. The rest of the class watches the conversation and can switch to become the discussant of their group.

Aspects for online courses

If the course is an online course or a blended learning course, the discussions and/or debates can be performed online using rooms in Adobe Connect for instance. When using the Jigsaw model the teacher can create a number of rooms and dividing the students into groups representing both sides. When using the Fishbowl model a few students take an active part in the conversation while the rest observe. If someone wants to step into the conversation he or she can signal this and waits for someone else to give room.

Another debate model is letting two - or more depending on the number of perspectives that are to be represented - putting forward their arguments while the rest of the students (which have been divided into groups and have prepared for the debate) continuously provide the speakers with comments and suggestions. This continuous support might be handled through a digital device such as a mobile phone or computer, but preferably in a manner the teacher can read afterwords to check each student's contribution to the debate.