In a recent Omnia article featuring Bill Ashmanskas’s Physics for Architecture course, which is taught in the Structured Active In-Class Learning (SAIL)format, CETLI’s Co-Executive Director Bruce Lenthall outlined the benefits of SAIL at Penn:
“’Many, many research studies suggest that courses with highly structured, highly active learning produce better learning outcomes for all students,’ says Bruce Lenthall, executive director of Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation (CETLI), who has helped implement SAIL courses at Penn for more than a decade. He says the courses also help engage students who have been historically underrepresented in their field, improving opportunities for equitable learning.[…]
Lenthall says that the desire to get students thinking with each other is driving more professors at Penn to incorporate SAIL activities into their courses, even if they’re not fully transforming their classes. ‘At its best, SAIL makes explicit for students how to take an active role in their own learning and makes that a process of discovery,’ says Lenthall. ‘The outcomes that produces—learning, persistence, equity—are things we value very highly.’”
Read the full article from Omnia.
CETLI also offers several resources to help instructors consider incorporating SAIL practices into their teaching.