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of class that built on material covered in a previous lecture. This gave students some practice in applying the concepts and gave us the chance to observe their confusions. The warm-up problems didn’t take much time, and they pro- vided both students and faculty with useful information. If you’d like to learn more about designing active classrooms, there are several resources we have found to be very useful. In addition to Mazur’s classic book (1997), the boxed insert lists three resources for getting started with active learning. The resources in the insert provide low-risk and relatively painless entry points into active learning, but perhaps an equally valuable resource is a group of like-minded col- leagues with whom to share the journey. One challenge for instructors is committing the time necessary to imple- ment, assess, and revise new techniques in their courses. A community of practice populated by instructors exploring similar techniques can provide ongoing support and ac- countability during the process. Education theorist Etienne Wenger (2016) describes communities of practice as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”
Biosketches
John R. Buck is a Professor in the Elec- trical and Computer Engineering De- partment at the University of Massachu- setts Dartmouth. His research studies signal processing, underwater acoustics, animal bioacoustics, and engineering education. John received his PhD from
Online Resources for Starting with Active Learning
1 Hanford, E. (2011). Don’t Lecture Me. American RadioWorks Podcast, September 2011. Available at https://goo.gl/u70FDp.
2 Mahajan, S. (2009), Teaching College-Level Science and Engineering. MIT OpenCourseware. Available at https://goo.gl/c3YJBJ.
3 Bruff, D., McMahon, T., Goldberg, B., and Campa III, H. (2014). An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning. Available at https://goo.gl/w0hssk.
Recent work in STEM faculty development has produced a model for ongoing teaching development groups to support adoption of evidence-based teaching practices. The SIMPLE design model builds on research results in both K-12 and college professional development (Jamieson and Lohmann, 2009; Loucks-Horsley et al., 2010). SIMPLE teaching devel- opment groups are guided by five principles: sustainable, incremental change, mentoring, people-driven learning environments, and design (Nelson and Hjalmarson, 2015). SIMPLE groups require very little infrastructure and are often realized as a group of faculty meeting over a weekly (or monthly) lunch to discuss new strategies they’re using in their classes, share tips, and provide support. Creation of a community of practice can transform the often-isolating experience of trying new teaching strategies into a reward- ing collaborative effort in which instructors learn from each other’s challenges and successes.
the MIT/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Pro- gram. He was a Fulbright Senior Fellow in Australia in 2003- 2004 and received the 2005 IEEE Education Society Mac Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award.
Kathleen E. Wage is a signal processor whose current interests are ocean noise, underwater acoustics, and engineering education. She is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineer- ing at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Kathleen obtained her BS in electri-
cal engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and her MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the MIT/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. She received the 2008 IEEE Education Society Mac Van Valken- burg Early Career Teaching Award. Kathleen spent 55 days at sea for the PhilSea experiments and wishes the Olympic Committee would recognize "Sonobuoy Tossing" as an of- ficial sport.
Jill K. Nelson is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineer- ing at George Mason University, Fair- fax, VA. Her disciplinary research lies in statistical signal processing, specifically detection and estimation in target track- ing and physical layer communications.
Her pedagogical research focuses on faculty development as a way to broaden use of evidence-based practices in STEM teaching. Jill earned a BS in electrical engineering and a BA in economics from Rice University, Houston, TX, and an MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received the 2014 IEEE Education Society Mac Van Valkenburg Early Career Teach- ing Award.
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