Activating instruction: How to foster study and thinking skills in higher education

Abstract

New instructional procedures have been developed and applied at the University ofHelsinki. Department ofPsychology since 1986. The aim ofthese procedures has been to enhance effective study skills. The idea is to stimulate active learning in students by so called activating instruction. whi ch is theoretically based on a combination of Vygotsky's ideas. applied cognitive science, and process-oriented instruction.in many courses, students have been able to choose a preferred form of instruction among the new and the traditional methods. A sixyear longitudinal study was conducted in order to see. what kinds of choices psychology students (N=114) made and how these choices were connected with their academic progress.On the basis ofstudents ' evaluations. the new methods differed significantly from traditional methods. Students associated the development of study skills and understanding more often with activating instruction than with traditional courses. The number of activating courses taken was related 10 success in final exam and thesis writing. Those who parti cipated in activating instruction studied slower during the first three years of their studying. but were more successf ul in the long term.

Congruence and friction between learning and teaching

“…Students are continually activated to carry out the various learning functions when learning (Entwistle, 1992;Lonka & Ahola, 1995). Examples of this teaching strategy for every learning function are presented in Table 3.…”

“…If the teacher uses a shared regulation form of instruction, congruence between learning and teaching occurs when the students master a learning activity to an intermediate degree. An example of this is that students do not process the subject matter critically on their own initiative, but are nevertheless stimulated by a group discussion to draw their own conclusions and to form personal judgments (Lonka & Ahola, 1995). In this shared-control strategy, constructive friction will take place if students do not master a learning or thinking activity in the subject domain at hand.…”

“…This makes it possible for teachers to take into account individual differences among students in their need for support. The teacher acts as external monitor and provides students with feedback on the quality of their strategy use (Volet, 1991;Lonka & Ahola, 1995). After a phase of activation of thinking activities by teachers, this form of teacher-regulation is gradually withdrawn, too.…”

Learning more by being taught less: a “time-for-self-study” theory explaining curricular effects on graduation rate and study duration

“…Although this educational experiment only covered the first year of an undergraduate program, students who participated graduated at a significantly higher rate than their peers in a control group, and reflected retrospectively that the program had had a strong positive effect on their college careers. Lonka and Ahola (1995) demonstrated that students participating in activating instruction were more successful than those participating in lecture-based courses (although they needed more time in the first years of study).…”

Helping Doctoral Students to Finish Their Theses

“…A writing course for doctoral students is described where different techniques are applied. The exercises are based on those introduced by Björk (1997), Boice (1990), Healy (1986, as well as Lonka and Ahola (1995). …”