This past Saturday SUNY Fredonia was host for an introductory workshop for chemistry instructors from throughout New York and Pennsylvania. The event introduced high school, college and university educators to POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning), a research-based learning environment where students are actively engaged in mastering course content and developing essential skills by working in self-managed teams on guided inquiry activities. The program was developed based on research findings which contend that students experience improved learning when they are actively engaged and given the opportunity to construct their own knowledge.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, POGIL workshops are intended to spread the word about the program on a national level. The workshop at SUNY Fredonia will promote effective understanding and mastery of course content while facilitating continued development, and to investigate how students undergo conceptual changes through POGIL techniques. While the POGIL program is quite popular among science educators, instructors of all disciplines can implement the techniques.
“It was important for SUNY Fredonia to host a POGIL event because it brought a variety of people from K-12 and higher education institutions to learn about and discuss some very effective teaching techniques that enhance student learning,” says Dr. LeeAnn “Beez” Schell, director of the SUNY Fredonia Professional Development Center and workshop host.
Workshop participants experienced the POGIL approach from a student’s perspective, and were introduced to various instructional techniques that support a “student-centered” learning environment. Additional topics included discussion of specific materials for general, organic and physical chemistry; overcoming barriers of implementation; and training and supervision of teaching assistants. Five Fredonia faculty from the library, mathematics, business and education departments attended the workshop as well. They hope to incorporate the POGIL principles into their own teaching and encourage fellow faculty to the same.
Dr. Schell added, “There is evidence to suggest that using the POGIL approach leads to greater student mastery of the content and greater enjoyment in the classroom than lecturing does. There is no place to hide when a student enters a POGIL classroom! Students work in small groups and are engaged in discovering solutions rather than being told the answers.”
As of 2007, over 700 instructors have adopted a POGIL approach in high school, college and university classrooms and laboratories. Students are taught to understand and apply new concepts while developing skills in the areas of information processing, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication, management and assessment, as instructors facilitate guide teams through specially designed activities. To learn more about the POGIL program, visit http://new.pogil.org/.
