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STEVEN HALL: So one of the
nice things about this approach

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is that, first of all, the
students are always engaged.

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They're actively engaged
in their learning.

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They're not passively
listening to me

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try to explain the important
features of a problem.

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By standing up and
working at the board,

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I can see what all
the students are doing

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in the room at the same time.

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So I can tell from
across the room

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if a group is having trouble.

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I can tell from the
middle of the room

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if the entire class
is maybe lost.

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So it gives me a lot of options.

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I can go help students
who are having trouble.

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I can stop the class.

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I can lecture a little bit to
help with a broad misconception

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that they may have.

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But more importantly, when
the students are standing,

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they're much more likely
to share the responsibility

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for doing the problem.

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What I've found is that when
they're working at tables, even

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if we ask them to work
together, the tendency

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is to turn to the piece
of paper in front of them

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and work alone.

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But by standing up,
sharing a blackboard,

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no one can monopolize.

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Anyone can step in
and do a problem.

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So in a conventional class,
the opportunities for feedback

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are essentially, when you
grade the problem sets,

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you have some inkling
of whether students

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understand the material.

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But really, you learn
whether students

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know the material at the quiz
at which point it's too late.

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The students have already scored
perhaps poorly on the quiz.

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But by then, you've moved
on to other material.

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So one of the nice things
about active learning

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is that it provides feedback
at multiple times scales.

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So in a lecture, if you have
a concept quiz on material

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that you've just
lectured, you might

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discover that the lecture
was completely ineffective.

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Or you might discover that
it was very effective,

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and you can move
on to new material.

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The same is true in recitation.

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Especially in the
recitations that I've

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been doing in 16.06 where
we emphasize skills,

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you can see over the weeks
the progression of skills.

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Students get better and
better at a core skill

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that they need later on.

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And in our case, it's things
like root locus and Bode plots.

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You can really see week to
week that they get much better

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at what they're doing.