One day, after I finished delivering a professional development workshop at an investment bank, I encountered the HR person in the hallway. She said: "I was going to come in and check on you earlier to see how it was going. But then when I heard how noisy the room was, I decided not to bother."
That's because she knew that a noisy classroom is an engaged classroom.
If you're as old as I am, you probably remember the days when education meant sitting in a classroom listening to someone talk. But in the years since then we have come to realize that audio learning is actually the least effective form of learning.
What's more effective? Add visuals and learning goes up a notch because once we get a visual into our long term memory we can recall it with 90% accuracy.
Next on the list for learning is "doing" aka. active learning. Someone can explain something to you until they are blue in the face, but it isn't until you try to do it yourself that you actually get it.
This data isn't new. When I began teaching at NYU 17 years ago, adjuncts were paid to attend a two part course on active learning/small group exercises. And workshops from my consulting company Simitri are similarly structured.
So it's no wonder that I have focused my career on facilitating the effective use of small group learning.
But as we know, actions often have unintended consequences. Last fall, for the first time ever, my midterm reviews included the following comment: "I like hearing other people's points of view."
There is no doubt that we have become increasingly intolerant of others views. And these days many don't want to hear what others have to say. But we can't learn from each other unless we listen. And isn't that what college is all about?
I am dismayed to think that universities are shutting out alternative points of view instead of listening to them and trying to find common ground. Anyone can start a fight. But finding compromise is far more difficult. It starts with listening.
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