From my perspective, the journal is also helpful in monitoring student mastery of topics. It allows me to advise students on effective learning strategies and to act as a motivator for students who admit to having frustrations and difficulties. Conclusions My goal in creating an active learning environment is to have students become more involved in their learning and develop their critical thinking skills. Student grades still fit a normal distribution and teaching evaluations remain some of the highest in the college. Student comments, however, are considerably different.
Students speak of understanding the material rather than just memorizing facts.
They describe feelings of pride and self-confidence at being able to independently solve problems. They also describe insights regarding strengths and weaknesses in their learning styles. I firmly believe these learning achievements were the result of using an active learning approach to teaching statistics. Writing assignments in statistics classes encourage students to learn interpretation. The George Washington Press.