In the previous posting I discussed my experience at the second day’s sessions of the June 2006 Teaching Innovations Program in Economics Workshop. The half day session on Day 3 was largely a combination of debriefing on activities from Day 2 and introduction of the follow-up activities. Here are some brief thoughts from the third day before I go on to reflect on the workshop as a whole.
One interesting take-away was the “Gallery Walk†– A good way to report out on a cooperative learning activitywhen the product is relatively brief: ask groups to write their conclusions on poster paper, and then tape them to the wall before next class. To begin class, ask students to walk around and review the posters. I could do this the first day of class in the context of asking students to define economics. More precisely, I could ask each student to challenge me (the teacher) to apply economics to understanding something specific in their lives. We could put those items on poster paper and start the next class with a Gallery Walk. I know this isn’t a group activity but it would still work.
