Learning To Learn: A Look Into the Collaborative Learning Space

Abstract

The Collaborative Learning Space is a recent addition to the University of Arizona that helps students engage in active learning. Prior to the incorporation of the CLS, courses were primarily taught in a lecture based format. After receiving a grant, the University of Arizona decided to use the money to develop new types of leaning spaces and classrooms to increase student engagement and active learning. These classrooms are not only effective for the students, but also they make a huge impact on the faculty. For my honors senior thesis, I worked with Dr. Cohen to get a closer look at how we learn and what learning is like in the CLS. We investigated what types of learning and teaching styles are used in the CLS, and how students and professors view this new space in comparison to a regular lecture based classroom. We also explored the literature on how active learning impacts students learning. Overall the teacher and student satisfaction with the new learning spaces was seen to be very high, and active learning was found to show improvements in different areas including information retention, critical thinking, study habits, student attitude, and problem-solving skills.