On Friday afternoon, Andrea MacArgel, an instructional designer for Binghamton University’s Center for Learning and Teaching, hosted an information session for educators on how they can help students improve their quantitative problem-solving skills.

The session focused on one method for quantitative problem-solving called active learning. Active learning is a process where students will actively involve themselves with another student’s work in order to solve a quantitative problem by verbalizing all of their thoughts. Research on active learning has shown positive effects on student success metrics and long-term retention of knowledge.

“Active learning is designed with two roles — a problem-solver and a listener,” MacArgel said. “The problem-solver is verbalizing all of their thoughts, including methods that they choose to take to solve the problem. The listener will give their complete attention to the problem solver by simply observing. The listener should listen carefully and ask the speaker to slow down or clarify if needed.”

She said that the listener role in active learning should not seek to solve the problem on their own, but should instead ask probing questions that may help the solver derive their own solution.

“[The listener] should not help with solving the problem, but rather ask, ‘What are you thinking’ and ‘Can you explain what you are writing?’” MacArgel said. “They should not give hints and should not solve the problem for themselves.”

Active learning methods are currently being implemented in several classes at BU. Calculus classes, for example, have utilized the process of active learning by having students first learn the lecture material at home, so that when students come to class, they can work with other students to solve problems.

MacArgel brought together professors, lecturers and teaching assistants for the information session. She said that anyone who is leading a class can implement methods like these, no matter their field of study. The event attracted educators from a wide variety of fields, including calculus, physics and microbiology, all of whom came with the goal of reformatting their classes to better serve students’ needs.

Caitlin Light, a research educator for the Freshman Research Immersion program, said she hoped that her students will be willing to give active learning a try. She said that paired learning, when two people work together, is helpful for students to work on critical problem-solving skills.

“Oftentimes, students say they think they understand the material and then when they take the quiz or complete the homework, the majority of the class does very poorly, and this can be very frustrating as an educator,” Light said. “I also felt way more comfortable working in a pair rather than working in a group, which can be scary for my students.”

Kunal Sharma, a graduate student studying mathematics, said that articulating how much prior information each person in the pair is working with can be very important to reaching a solution to a problem.

“Even though they may have learned it before, my partner may not remember how to solve each problem,” Sharma said. “There are hidden assumptions that we often make, and at certain times we do not know how students are prepared. I feel that this can create a lot of uncertainty in how much the student is really understanding.”