Affective Components of Active Learning

Encouraging Creativity in the Research Process with Web 2.0

Resources

Melissa Cornwell University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Information Literacy Summit April 2013

What is Active Learning?

“Active learning can be defined as anything that ‘involves students in doing things and thinking about what they’re doing” (Keyser, 36).

Active learning goes beyond the lecture. It may involve a metacognition process,

or thinking about thinking. There are many different techniques that

can be used to get the students involved.

What do we mean by Affective Components?

“The affective domain comprises a person’s attitudes, emotions, interests, motivation, self-efficacy, and values” (Schroeder and Cahoy, 129).

Why does this matter? › “Affect plays a large role in college students’

relationship to libraries and the research process” (Schroeder and Cahoy, 131).

The emotions that students feel throughout the research process have an impact on their ability to process information.

How does Creativity fit within Active Learning and the Affective Domain?

Creativity!

Creativity is defined as “the ability to generate new ideas and new connections between ideas, and ways to solve problems in any field or realm of our lives” (Public Broadcasting Service).

What other ideas come to mind when we talk about creativity?

Creativity and the Affective Domain

“Creativity and curiosity are highly personal experiences and learning is about the individual, not the group” (Hensley, 33).

Why is creativity important? › It has been linked to creating positive

emotions and overall satisfaction. › Creativity encourages students to follow

their interests.

Sparking Creativity Using Active Learning

Creativity can help the students to think about what they’re doing.

Ways to spark creativity (based on the definition of creativity as the ability to generate ideas) : › Take notes › Gather and capture new ideas › Find inspiration in other areas of life › Idea-mapping

Creativity in the Research Process

Five Steps of the Research Process

Defining your topic Developing a research strategy Conducting searches for information Evaluating your resources Citing your resources

Creativity Tool: Idea-Mapping

Idea-mapping is the “process of writing down ideas in a way that helps you see new relationships and possibilities” (Rubin).

Use idea-mapping to help with the first part of the research process!

Examples of idea-mapping include: Concept maps Flowcharts Post-It Notes on Whiteboard

A New Way to Map Ideas: Word Clouds!

Group Activity- Let’s be the Students!

Please break up into groups of 3-4 people. Choose a word cloud creation tool to

experiment with (please see the handout). Pretend that you’re the students! Each

group should come up with a broad topic, and using the word cloud creation tool, create a word cloud with both broad and specific topics and sub-topics.

Group Discussion

What did you think about using the word clouds for brainstorming topics for the research project?

Is it too simple or too difficult? Does creating word clouds fit the

definitions of both active learning and creativity?

How could we make this exercise so that it speaks to the affective domain?

Benefits of Using Word Clouds for Brainstorming Research Topics

It can help organize ideas and see relationships between different ideas and topics.

It provides a visual image that the student could continue to consult throughout the research process.

The student can focus on the content and not worry about the layout.

Resources

Hensley, Randy Burke. "Curiosity and Creativity as Attributes of Information Literacy." Reference & User Services Quarterly 44.1 (2004): 31-6. 29 January 2013.

Keyser, Marcia W. "Active learning and cooperative

learning: understanding the difference and using both styles effectively." Research Strategies 17.1 (2000): 35-44. 24 January 2013.

"Learning Services: The Research Process - 5 Steps to Success." 1 July 2009. The University of Auckland: Libraries and Learning Services. 4 April 2013. <http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/instruct/research.htm>.

Resources North Carolina State University Libraries. "The Research Process:

The Five Steps." n.d. Developing Research Skills: The Research Process. 4 April 2013. <http://support.library.ewu.edu/reference/tutorial/rskills/les1/steps.html>.

Public Broadcasting Service . "Creativity." 2011. This Emotional Life. 4 April 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/creativity/creativity>.

Rubin, Gretchen. "7 Tips for Sparking Your Creativity." 24 July 2010. Care2. 4 April 2013. <http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-tips-for-sparking-your-creativity.html>.

Schroeder, Robert and Ellysa Stern Cahoy. "Valuing Information Literacy: Affective Learning and the ACRL Standards." portal: Libraries and the Academy 10.2 (2010): 127-46.

Thank you for coming!

Any Questions? Please email me at

mcornwell88@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like a copy of this presentation.