The modified fishbowl for online active learning classrooms

Introduction

Active learning means engagement with the course elements and is best manifested when students are busy doing classroom activities and complete outside class work and assignments (Shawer, 2022a; Shawer, 2017). Since positive relationships between academic success and active learning have been established across many disciplines, a professional responsibility is placed on every teacher to materialize active learning in their classrooms (Prince, 2004; Shawer, 2022a). One way to achieve active learning is the ability to use active learning strategies. In this article, I demonstrate how to use the modified fishbowl online. Precisely, I will address two points:

Why to use the modified fishbowl?
How to conduct the modified fishbowl online?

Why to use the modified fishbowl?

As an active learning strategy, the modified fishbowl enables instructors to create active learning classrooms through multiple activity modes. For example, in a single fishbowl lesson, students work solo, in pair groups and small groups, and as whole group. Instead of being passive listeners, students carry out all learning activities. You would watch them either performing, observing, peer assessing, self-reflecting, discussing, or defending. On the other hand, fishbowl lessons drive instructors to run learner-centered classrooms, as you would observe them play the roles of organizers, guides, and facilitators in every single lesson. In particular, instructors may use the modified fishbowl to:

encourage active student observation and experimentation of new learning.
encourage peer feedback and self-reflection.
promote communication, critical thinking, and evaluative skills.
teach new concepts, correct misconceptions, and draw conclusions.
develop and refine ideas and solutions (Shawer, 2022b).

How to conduct the modified fishbowl online?

The fishbowl strategy can be used online with adaptations to keep discussions focused and students engaged with the activities. Below, I demonstrate how to conduct the fishbowl strategy in virtual classrooms. I will demonstrate it according to strategy 1 (same-task pair grouping). For real classroom fishbowl and fishbowl grouping strategies, see Shawer (2022b). Moreover, I will demonstrate the online fishbowl using Shawer’s (2022b) four steps (see Fig. 1):

Step 1: Present fishbowl topic

Step 2: Determine fishbowl tasks

Step 3: Use a grouping strategy

Step 4: Conduct fishbowl activities

Step 1: Present fishbowl topic

- - - Time: 5 minutes.
    - Activity mode: whole class.
    - Instructor’s role: organizer.
    - Learners’ role: active listeners and participants/ contributors.
    - Participants: instructor and students.
As Fig 1 shows, you need to introduce the fishbowl topic first.
For example, you may want your students to “plan and conduct a lesson”.
From the online platform (e.g., Teems, Canvas, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom, or Moodle), present the fishbowl topic.
You may ask students to plan and conduct an online lesson.
Using the Google Meet Whiteboard or Screen Share, for example, briefly display the following lesson aims and LOs:

Aims: By the end of the online session, you will be able to:

plan and conduct the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities.
plan and conduct the participatory activities.
plan and conduct the post-assessment and summary activities.

LOs: By the end of the online session, you will be able to:

Plan the bridge-in activity.
Write the lesson aim and learning outcomes (LOs) at the relevant thinking levels (g., remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and/or create).
Plan the pre-assessment activity.
Carry out the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities.
Determine the number of participatory activities to achieve your LOs.
Plan how to conduct and assess each participatory activity.
Carry out each participatory activity.
Plan the post-assessment and summary activities.
Carry out post-assessment and summary activities.
Present the session aims and LOs briefly at this point. Just brief students of what they will be doing. When you conduct each activity, present each activity aim and its LOs in some detail.

Fig 1. The modified fishbowl strategy (source: Shawer, 2022b).

Step 2: Determine fishbowl tasks

- - - Time: 5 minutes.
    - Activity mode: whole class.
    - Instructor’s role: organizer.
    - Learners’ role: active listeners and participants.
    - Participants: instructor and students.
    - Tasks: 3 tasks.
Use Google Meet Whiteboard or Screen Share, for example, to briefly display the tasks you want your students to achieve.
Based on the lesson aims and LOs, display these tasks on Google Meet:

Task 1: plan and conduct the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities.

Plan the bridge-in activity.
Write the lesson aim.
Write lesson LOs at the relevant thinking levels (e.g., remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and/or create).
Plan the pre-assessment activity.
Carry out the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities.

Task 2: plan and conduct the participatory activities.

Determine the number of participatory activities to achieve your LOs.
Plan how to conduct each participatory activity.
Plan how to assess each participatory activity.
Carry out each participatory activity.

Task 3: plan and conduct the post-assessment and summary activities.

Plan the post-assessment
Plan the summary activity.
Carry out post-assessment and summary activities.

Step 3: Use a grouping strategy

Time: 5 minutes.
Activity mode: whole class.
Instructor’s role: organizer.
Learners’ role: active listeners and participants.
Participants: instructor and students.
Strategy 1: same-task pair grouping.
Groups: (e.g., 3 pair groups, 6 groups, 29 students).
Divide the class into pair groups.
In our example, groups 1 and 2 form the first pair groups, groups 3 and 4 form the second pair groups, whereas groups 5 and 6 form the third pair groups.
All groups must work on the same task and at the same time.
Every group must perform and observe each task.
From the online platform, create three Breakout Rooms.
Assign each pair groups into a Breakout Room.
Assign or drag group 1 (fishbowl group) and group 2 (observing group) to the first Breakout Room (e.g., on Zoom, Teems, Google Meet or Canvass Group).
Drag group 3 and group 4 into the second Breakout Room.
Drag groups 4 and 5 into the third Breakout Room.
It should be noted that Google Meet Breakout Rooms are available through the Enterprise Edition (G-suite and Workstation) and Google Meet Breakout Rooms Extension. You can create Google Meet Breakout Rooms as follows:
From ACTIVITIES, choose Breakout Rooms,
Create the rooms you need (3 rooms in our example),
Name the rooms as Room 1, Room 2, and Room 3,
Drag group 1 and 2 students to Room 1 (first pair groups),
Drag group 3 and 4 students to Room 2 (second pair groups), and
Drag group 5 and 6 students to Room 3 (third pair groups).
Click SAVE or Create.
The result will be the Main Room and three Breakout Rooms.
From the Main Google Meet Room, you (instructor) can join each Breakout Room to observe and facilitate discussions. You can also broadcast to all Google Meet Extension Rooms simultaneously. Students can leave their rooms to ask questions in the Main Room and come back again to their Breakout Rooms. However, students cannot switch rooms unless the instructor does it.
Each room must have one fishbowl group and one observing group.
Each room should not exceed eight members (4 fishbowl and 4 observing students) to manage and allow effective discussions.
Assign a group leader to watch time, facilitate discussion, encourage and invite contributions, and record the group lesson or activity plan.
Remind every observing group member to get ready to answer what they learned from the fishbowl group demonstration or performance.
Students analyze information, learn new concepts, and draw conclusions.
Every student would therefore take notes to document what they learned.

Step 4: Conduct fishbowl activities

First: Perform and observe

Tasks: task 1: plan and conduct the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities.
Time: 15 minutes.
Participants: students, 3 pair groups (3 perform & 3 observe).
Activity mode: small group for groups A and solo for groups B.
Instructor’s role: organizer and observer.
Learners’ role: active doers/ participants.
Task aim and LOs: stated in step 1.
Outputs: activity plan, learning list, and feedback list.

Performing: Fishbowl groups

Group 1 (fishbowl 1) demonstrate task 1 to group 2 (observing group 1) in Breakout Room 1.
Group 3 (fishbowl 2) demonstrate task 1 to group 4 (observing group 2) in Breakout Room 2.
Group 5 (fishbowl 3) demonstrate task 1 to group 6 (observing group 3) in Breakout Room 3.
They need to demonstrate the knowledge and skills to the observing groups.
They must try their best to help observing groups to learn target knowledge and skills as set out in task 1 above (step 2).
Fishbowl resources:
Provide every Breakout Room with the task instructions.
Unless each student has a second screen, each student may print out a copy to facilitate back referencing the lesson material.
This activity works also well in flipped classrooms.
Fishbowl groups can use the Google Meet Virtual Whiteboard/ Jamboard to demonstrate the knowledge and skills involved in the task in real time. The group can collaboratively work on the Jamboard simultaneously.
They can use Screen Share to present information or paly a video.
From Google Classroom Stream, for example, students can use the Question feature to create in-class discussion quizzes for checking understanding.
Instructors can join any Breakout Room to monitor or participate in the activity. They can also broadcast to them all at the same time.
There are multiple features on various platforms that could be used to run interactive classes while students are in Breakout Rooms.

Observing: Observing groups

Observing groups (groups 2, 4, and 6) observe fishbowls (1, 3, and 5) demonstrate task 1 in Breakout Rooms 1, 2, and 3.
They observe to learn the task target knowledge and skills as set out in step 2.
Observing groups observe fishbowls so that they can achieve two purposes:
(1) learn target knowledge and skills, and
(2) assess the fishbowl task performance to provide them with feedback.
Ask every observing student to write notes on what they learned.
Ask every observing student to prepare feedback (oral, written, and/ or video) for the fishbowl students against the rubric.
Remind observing students to ask questions and document what they learned.
Set target knowledge and skills for the observing groups to learn.
Precisely, ask every observing student to write notes on:
What they learned from fishbowl performance (learning achieved).
What remained unanswered (learning struggles).
What the fishbowl did well against the rubric (feedback).
What the fishbowl needs to improve against the rubric (feedback).
Observing group resources: Instructor should provide:
every Breakout Room with the task instructions and LOs.
every observing student with a copy of the lesson material.
an analytic rubric to assess the fishbowl performance. This rubric must be used by every observing student.
a call recording to help provide video feedback to fishbowl students.
Observing group outputs:
Learning list of what they learned from the fishbowl group.
Feedback list for the fishbowl group on what went well and what they need to improve.
Observing group members can use the content of the Jamboard on Google Meet to get a visual representation of the virtual Whiteboard activity. A link to the Jam is sent to everyone on the call and downloaded as an image or PDF. Jams can also be shared with others who did not attend the meeting. Jams are useful material for home work and study.

Second: Group switch

- - - Tasks: still task 1.
    - Time: 15 minutes.
    - Participants: same as before group switch.
    - Activity mode: same as before group switch.
    - Instructor’s role: same as before group switch.
    - Learners’ role: same as before group switch.
    - Task aim and LOs: same as before group switch.
    - Outputs: same as before group switch.
Carrying out the activities stays the same as before group switch.
Task rules stay the same as before group switch.
The only difference is that observing groups become fishbowl groups and vice versa. This means groups 2, 4, and 6 perform task 1, while groups 1, 3, and 5 become the observing groups.

Third: Whole class discussion

- - - Tasks: still task 1.
    - Time: 10 minutes.
    - Participants: instructor and students.
    - Activity mode: whole group.
    - Instructor’s role: facilitator.
    - Learner’s role: students show learning, provide feedback, and respond to questions.
    - Purpose: check student ability to demonstrate target learning and give feedback.
    - Outputs: activity plan, learning list, and feedback list.
Although you could bring all Google Breakout Rooms to the Main Room for a whole class discussion, you could broadcast to them all while they are in their Breakout Rooms.
Use the POLLS to check understanding of concepts and ideas.
Ask individual students to demonstrate to the class what they learned.
Ask them to indicate what fishbowl groups did not answer and what remains confusing and unanswered.
Ask them to tell the class what the fishbowls did well and what to improve.
While facilitating discussion, develop ideas, correct misunderstanding and misconceptions and provide necessary information.
You should write the main points on a Jamboard to allow interaction, as students can modify, add to, or remove Jam content. This also allows every student to have a copy for home work and study. With your class and as appropriate, address these points:
Which of Gagne et al.’s (1992) nine and Merrill’s (2002) five principles of instruction underlie the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities?
Which strategies could be used to engage students with the new learning?
Which strategies could be used to activate prior learning?
How do Bloom’s (1956) levels of thinking impact lesson planning and delivery?
How does Anderson et al.’s (2001) revision differ from Bloom’s taxonomy?
How would students use the knowledge and skills to plan and conduct the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities in other situations?
What are the elements of planning and conducting the bridge-in and pre-assessment activities? What skills do they need to plan and conduct them?
Compare engagement with learning and activation of prior learning.
Having finished task 1, the class moves on to do tasks 2 and 3 in the same way.

References

Anderson, L., Krathwohl, D., Airasian, P., Cruikshank, K., Mayer, R., Pintrich, P., et al. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Allyn & Bacon

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. In Cognitive domain (Vol. 1). Longmans.

Gagné, R. M., Briggs, L. J., & Wager, W. W. (1992). Principles of instructional design (4^th ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59.

Prince, M. (2004) Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education 93 (3) 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x.

Shawer, S. F. (2017). Teacher-driven curriculum development at the classroom level: Implications for curriculum, pedagogy and teacher training. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 296-313. doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.12.017.

Shawer, S. F. (2022a). The 3C strategy for traditional and online active learning. novapublishers.com.

Shawer, S. F. (2022b). The modified fishbowl for active learning classrooms. novapublishers.com.