#13 Activating students with the AVIVA scheme

Teaching interactively, on site and online, means conveying course content with the most active participation of students possible and/or working in joint exchange with students, and thus actively supporting learning. The planning and the sequence of courses play a decisive role in this.

Why does interactive teaching support learning?

A (digital) course with the active participation of students can have a positive effect on their motivation and thus also on their learning success. Concrete guidance on learning and on the learning process is essential here as well. An interactive teaching and learning setting is beneficial in any case, as it enables students to process the course content cognitively.

One way of achieving this is the AVIVA scheme (Städeli et al., 2010), which outlines the sequence, design and structure of effective teaching in five phases and can serve as a structure for teaching units in both digital and on-site teaching. The scheme is based on findings from the psychology of learning about how learning processes unfold.

The three-store model of memory by Atkinson/Shiffrin (1968), for example, describes three types of memory: a sensory memory, a short-term or working memory and a long-term memory. For new information to pass into long-term memory, it requires the attention of students, the activation of prior knowledge and room for processing and practice.

Structuring your own teaching with the AVIVA scheme

The acronym AVIVA is made up of the initial letters of the five phases:

1. Arriving/orienting and tuning in
2. Activating prior knowledge
3. Informing
4. Revise
5. Evaluating

with phases 2, 3 and 4 („VIV“) being particularly important for interactive teaching.

Possible activities, different social forms and media for designing all phases in a way that supports learning can be found in the Münchner Methodenkasten (external site) .

Arriving/orienting and tuning in

Students should be tuned in to the topic of the teaching unit. One interactive example for tuning in is a quick feedback round in which students briefly say what they expect from the topic in question. This can be done orally in the plenary or with word clouds, in digital teaching as well.

Activating prior knowledge

In line with the three-store model of memory, teachers should build on the knowledge students already have in order to enable deep learning.

Audience response systems or buzz groups, for example, can be used to activate prior knowledge. Buzz groups are an activating teaching and learning method in which usually two to three students exchange ideas on a question or a topic for three to a maximum of five minutes.

This is easy to implement both online in breakout rooms and in on-site teaching. Buzz groups and audience response systems can also be combined.

Informing

New knowledge is developed by building on what is already known or on prior knowledge; together with knowledge construction, this forms the basis for the lasting development of knowledge and competences.

One example of an interactive method for acquiring new content is the group puzzle, in which learners work on different sub-topics and then bring their knowledge together in groups.

Another, shorter activity is the true/false method, in which students mark statements on a topic as true or false. They correct the false statements and compare the answers using an audience response system in order to make misunderstandings visible.

Revise

Newly acquired knowledge has to be processed cognitively through application so that it passes into long-term memory. Interactive teaching supports this process with in-depth exercises that follow on from the acquisition of new content and skills.

One tip for a consolidation activity in online settings is the StudentQuiz, where learners create questions themselves and can answer the questions of others.

Evaluating

In the final phase, the aim is on the one hand to check what the students have learned and on the other hand to obtain feedback on the course unit.

Knowledge can be checked with a quiz activity in the TU Graz TeachCenter (Exam). In addition, audience response systems can be used for reflection.