OWSD NIGERIA NATIONAL CHAPTER PRESENTS Enhancing critical thinking in STEM education using active learning techniques

June 27, 2023

OWSD Nigeria National Chapter University of PortHarcourt Branch Series of Scientific Comm.:Toyin Olabisi Odutola on Enhancing critical thinking in STEM education using active learning

Enhancing critical thinking in STEM education using active learning techniques

                                                              By

                                              Toyin Olabisi Odutola

Introduction

Learning requires attentiveness. When students settle into a class, their attentiveness to the instructor increases and reaches a maximum at about 10 minutes into the class. Then it plummets as the students give in to the natural human inability to keep attention focused on anything for a very long time while being passive. It is difficult or impossible for students to pay attention to anything for very long while they are passive. Therefore, periodically giving the students some course-related activities during the lecture (active learning) aids their attentiveness. Students can retain 20% of what they hear but 90% of what they practice in class (Dave & Summers, 2014; E. Dale, 1969). Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience (Figure 1) shows how much students can remember based on the activities they are exposed to in class.