Students are asked to take their knowledge out of the class room and creatively apply it, and then bring it back in. So instead of having students write just te standard five para essay, have them writ in editorial for a newspaper or a letter to a representative. And what they're doing in those cases is having to shape their knowledge in different ways for different audiences. It's giving them practice thinking about what matters and what doesn't matter in those audiences.
Peter Felten discusses the research on engaging learners on episode 216 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.
Notes from the episode
Shape what our students do and what they think in the most efficient ways possible.
—Peter Felten
Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn. (from How Learning Works by Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 1)
Five Things Students Need to Do:
- Time
- Effort
- Feedback
- Practice
- Reflect
Three Things Students Need to Think/Feel:
- “I belong here.”
- “I can learn this.”
- “I find this meaningful.”