How Do I Know When It's Working?

As I've adjusted my teaching over the years, I have often asked myself how I know when any changes have been effective. Won't there always be a few students who, for any number of reasons, won't respond to what happens in the classroom? Will any change be quantifiable? After all, the people who hold the purse prefer such results don't they? These are questions that should be asked and I wish I had clear answers to them because it's frustrating not to have them. I could look at grades; they are a quantified result aren't they? That's a point debated for a very long time: what are grades measuring? I believe that on the whole I have noticed some increase in the higher grades among my active learning students, but at this point only my instincts connect that increase to improved methodology and that still leaves the question, "What are we measuring with grades?"

But let's say grades are a good measure and that they are improving for students on the whole. Won't a trend of rising grades raise eyebrows among the administrators sensitive to grade inflation? Most likely. That's a legitimate concern, but it's a bit self-defeating since it may unintentionally discourage teachers from seeking to improve performance for themselves and their charges. What may be needed in this case is an administration kept aware of what's going on in the classrooms and what the expectations are. Even so, grades probably shouldn't be our only measure.

Though it's not quantifiable like grades, what I'm left with as my next best evidence is what I observe in the active learning classroom that's different from what I observe in the traditional classroom. As I walk around the room to monitor the students' in-class homework, do I hear them discussing their assigned work? Most of them, I do. Are their discussions thoughtful and serious? Usually, they are. Do they present their work to their peers in a way that's understandable and sound? So far, almost always. Are they bored and frustrated? Not very often at all. The few that haven't prepared out of class as they should, they are going to be out of step, but then that's their responsibility. I can hardly follow them home, but I can hope that the example of their peers and a sense of responsibility to them may encourage the unprepared to start preparing.

At this point, the most convincing evidence for me about the effects of active learning is this obvious level of engagement with the material. When they are sitting in rows listening, some of them may have some mental engagement with the material, but then reading books and watching videos does that, too, and what's lacking in all these is that chance to interact with others who are sharing the experience, to help and to be helped, to create meaning and assign value to ideas as we do in a democracy: a continuous cycle of discussion and persuasion. For now, this is the best I can do to answer the question "Is it working?" And for now, that's enough for me.