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It is almost 20years ago, I can still recall my higher secondary science laboratory. Our teachers were not only explaining scientific concepts and processes in the classrooms. They were also converting those big complicated theories into simplified experiments. Participating in those school workshops was giving me 'hands on' 'minds on' experiences. 'Learning by doing' significantly enhances ability to think critically and problem solving. From science laboratories to everyday activity people learn by doing. It has definitely tricked my brain...

Mridula

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Back in the early 1980s my undergraduate Biology degree featured weekly tutorials somewhat different from our current practice, with an academic and only three or four students. The knowledge that there would be (figuratively) nowhere to hide ensured we were all prepared for the disarmingly simple tutorial structure - a roundtable conversation. In retrospect, an exercise in individual and collective sensemaking and with occasional revelatory shifts in my understanding. I had a similar experience in a Masters in Politics Science 15 years later - seminar format but a class size of a dozen or less.

Tim

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When I was a student the university lecturer also had a clinical teacher appointment at the hospital. Learnings from the classroom were translated into hands on experiences in the practice environment shortly afterwards which embedded the learning.

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In architectural design lectures, it is difficult to engage students in "testing" ideas without asking them to model or draw. This is a perfect opportunity to engage new ways of seeing. However, these tasks are not quick and require time to achieve. Short design exercises within lectures work well, especially if students swap work and present each other's proposals. However, this rarely happens since it crosses into the territory of the design studio and reduces the time allocated for being introduced to precedents...

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I designed a law subject based on students actively attending and observing presentation and deliberation of a case before a tribunal. The assessment of the component was the completion of a case study report. They not only learned and remembered the finer detail of the procedures involved go a head start in developing some essential skills for lawyers.

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I designed a law subject based on students actively attending and observing presentation and deliberation of a case before a tribunal. The assessment of the component was the completion of a case study report. They not only learned and remembered the finer detail of the procedures involved go a head start in developing some essential skills for lawyers.

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When I was an undergrad student, our physics lecturer always started the lectures with a general every day life question that would be later answered by the lecture. As pharmacy students, not many were keen about physics as a subject but the way he raised those general questions, made the topic very interesting and relevant to anyone and everyone.

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My focus, as a law student, was upon completing the 'readings' before each class - often in excess of 30,000-40,000 words. Accordingly I trained myself to skim read, but with an eye to the identification of issues. It wasn't very satisfying - but seemed like an important skill for a lawyer! The 'active' part was being able to respond to questions from the teacher, which were largely directed to ascertaining whether a student had, in fact, done the reading. The only time I was enlivened was when participating in moots, or mock trials, with a guest Judge and the ceremony of a mock court room. I wonder whether some degree courses are burdened by reading requirements which mitigate against active learning?

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Anatomy and Physiology - playing with hearts

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Anatomy and Physiology - playing with hearts

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When studying A&P and dissecting a heart, we were encouraged to 'play' with the heart, inserting our fingers through the aorta, vena cave, into the ventricles etc etc. This activity gave a 'real', physical understanding of the way the heart works and is one of the classes that has remained with me.

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I was involved in a class where students were asked to brain storm their ideas about a particular case study, and put positive, negative, and neutral ideas about the topic on different coloured post-it notes.
The coloured post-it notes were then collated on tables, and students had to "build a web" with their post-its, forming more solid arguments as they placed the post-its throughout the "web".
This experience allowed the students to synthesise their ideas, and visualise where they could be placed in the wider context of the case study, while negotiating and discussing each thought/argument with their students. This activity worked very well, as it was a non-threatening way of sharing ideas; and also provided a great way to synthesise their ideas and arguments.
- Alex

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In one of the numerous GradCetHed lessons I have attended.

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In one of the numerous GradCetHed lessons I have attended.

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When we were given pieces of papers with notes on them to construct the meaning of a particular student and determine whether that would change our initial of the student. I was engaged in constructing meaning and understanding the case but unfortunately, that did not change my mind.

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I was involved in an all day workshop which was simulation based relating to Paediatric Emergency, Trauma and Life Support. I was expecting it to be didactic however it was anything but! we would discuss specific scenarios, look at the protocols to manage the scenario, the we would be allocated a role in a simulation of an emergency, the simulation is recorded, then the recording is played back to the group and we debrief on what went well, where we could improve etc. It was a fantastic experience and I gained alot of insight into my own response and practices in emergency situations as well as how to manage them.
Judy

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In one of my undergraduate subjects (a heavy computing theory subject), tutorials were only made up of about 5 students and 1 tutor. In these tutorials, the tutors only guided discussion, they did not present information or provide correct answers to prescribed questions. Therefore, it was up to the group of students to actively think about the theory from the lecture, come to a consensus on its meaning, and apply it to solve a problem. This ensured that every student was mind on and hands on because if they weren't, then the tutorial would come to a halt due to lack of student input.

William

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Recently in learning a language, the tutor (and the course involved a large degree of blended learning, so tutorials were the only face-to-face time) would routinely go around the room and get the students to do all the exercises. Although simple and obvious, this meant that we had to be thinking about the language we were learning as we were learning it. It was obvious when students weren't "mind-on" - they didn't even understand the questions they were being asked! However if you were engaged, the whole experience became both easier, and more rewarding, especially as we reach the point where we could produce whole sentences.

Luke

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Most people's experience of an undergraduate degree a decade or more ago would seldom relate that to active participation in class. While i had some subjects that fit into this category, many of the subjects related to professional learning (i was completing a health professional degree) used patient cases to demonstrate concepts and develop clinical reasoning skills. Sitting in a class room with some patient information on the whiteboard and a lecturer firing questions at the class and facilitating the application of any theoretical knowledge we had to the patient scenario, was certainly a "minds-on" way of learning.

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I would say my mind was on when I had a teacher who would take a rigorous approach to elucidating difficult concepts. Many of my teachers had a habit of glossing over many underlying assumptions in discussing hard to grasp concepts. In such cases, I would just lose the flow of the class activities as I would get stuck on those assumptions. When I had teachers who discussed such assumptions explicitly, I found my mind to be actively engaged.

Ammar

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Last year I attended a day long session run by a counsellor. The day consisted of the counsellor telling stories from her own experience alternating with participants working on worksheets and then reporting back in pairs or to a slightly larger group. The worksheets were well considered, the graphic organisation of ideas stuck with me.  The session passed quickly. Key concepts have  infused my ongoing thought and action.

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I love the way this video segment is presented. I found myself watching it attentively because the step 2 question was visible and I had that in mind. Initially I misread the question and was thinking about recent experiences in my own teaching. A number of my sessional staff have undertaken workshops with Adam. We have been implementing some of these techniques in class. It is amazing how willing the students are to participate. It is interesting to see how a  video segment can be framed to act as a catalyst for a "minds on"
approach.

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The best teacher I had in my undergraduate degree was my microbiology professor.  During lab classes, he went to great lengths to draw answers out of us, getting us to relate the material we had learned in lectures (e.g. bacterial respiration and metabolism) to what we were seeing in the lab experiments (the look and smell of food spoilage).  But I know that other lab classes which were led by different lecturers didn't have the same experience - much more add A to B and look for C, without bringing the results back to what we had previously learned.  I'm now thinking about how you can structure lab classes to make this kind of connection and reinforcement a structured part of the learning experience - not all down to who is teaching that class.

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That finished in 1996 and I can't recall last week. But all of my chemistry classes were 'mind on and hands on'. Pre-work was to do the calculations and design the workflow of the synthesis you were going to do in class and if you didn't do it correctly, the synthesis failed. Too much science teaching is recipe and 'idiot-proof' nowadays.

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I have experienced this in mathematical problem-solving activities that I have engaged in or led. I have had to think about for example properties of 2D & 3D shapes and have used different concrete materials to explore shapes and properties. I have then had to summarise briefly characteristics of the shapes and to then present these to others for discussion and further questioning. Sample question: can you make a triangular pyramid from a 2D circle? The answer is Yes! Can you solve the problem ...?