Active Learning at Dawson is celebrating a birthday in 2022!
Ten years ago, something special took root at Dawson. Initiated and driven by a diverse group of teachers, supported by a rich foundation of evidence and research, and with the goal of developing better teaching and learning practices, a rough-around-the-edges Learning Community of a dozen or so individuals designed and oversaw the development of Dawson’s first Active Learning (AL) classroom and grew into the Dawson Active Learning Community (DALC). Since then, we have evolved, adapted, and grown into a multi-faceted community and we have overseen the development of a variety of Active Learning classrooms.
In 2022, the Dawson Active Learning Community (DALC) and the Dawson AL classroom initiative turn 10, and we want to celebrate! The hope is that in so doing, we can extend awareness and engagement in making teaching and learning better through evidence-based pedagogical practices and modern learning spaces.
Education is about guided change, and in academia, sustained pedagogical change hard. Indeed, traditional professional development models have had limited success just as traditional models of teaching have, because they’re built on transmission models. It’s not enough to tell teachers how to teach. To become an effective teacher takes practice, guidance, support, reflection and iteration. Moreover, it takes interactions with peers who understand our classrooms and subject matter, and it takes a safe space where we can recognize misgivings and progressively iterate towards better and better practices. Just as students need these things to learn deeply, so too do teachers – and that’s where communities are important, because they support members through hard times and help make the messy bits tidier.
Learning Communities and Communities of Practice are supportive, expertise and resource-rich spaces where practitioners focus on transforming and improving practice respectively. The DALC is now a hybrid of a Learning Community (LC) and a Community of Practice (CoP) because it is made up of a diverse range of people, some of whom are changing their practice and some who are refining it. The DALC is driven by faculty through a pair of faculty co-coordinators, and it features a Fellows program open to all faculty. It also holds regular meetings, workshops and activities and it is supported by professionals from the Office of Academic Development, researchers from the Learning Sciences, and support services/systems in the college.
AL classrooms are learning and teaching environments that are purposefully designed for engaging students in multifaceted learning activities. Active Learning can be done in any classroom for sure, but in a classroom designed specifically for it, Active Learning can be more dynamic, adaptable and easier on the teacher. Managing activities, technologies and maximizing learning opportunities in an AL classroom is achieved through purposeful design features that easily allow for the flow of information around the room, the monitoring of student activities, improved interactions, and the ability to engage with students individually, in small groups or on a whole-class basis.
If you are interested in learning more about the DALC or the AL classrooms, please email the coordinators at dalc@dawsoncollege.qc.ca, or check out the DALC web page at https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/active-learning/dawson-active-learning-community-dalc/. Also, please look out for our schedule of events throughout the semester on the Dawson HUB and feel free to attend any of our meeting or events.
All the best, and please keep an eye out for our 10th anniversary activities and events throughout 2022!
-Submitted by Chris Whittaker, DALC co-coordinator
