TREC Activities
TREC Activities
The TREC model, developed by Dr. Rod Cullen and Orlagh McCabe, is designed to help academics in higher education create engaging active learning experiences in online classes.
It consists of four stages: Trigger, Review, Expectations/Evidence, and Consolidation.
Alternative/linked methods: Problem-based learning, Case studies
Why?
- Encourages active participation and engagement
- Promotes understanding, skill development, and confidence
- Helps prevent passive learning
- Useful for academics transitioning to online teaching
How?
- Present a task that prompts students to articulate their initial knowledge or beliefs
- Share and discuss responses with the class
- Compare student responses with pre-prepared expectations and evidence
- Encourage students to challenge their own thinking and assumptions
- Reflect on initial understandings through follow-up tasks
When?
- Fully online teaching
- Face-to-face teaching
- Hybrid teaching situations
- Applicable at all educational levels and subject disciplines
Get Started
- Ask students to define a concept based on their prior knowledge
- Discuss the range of definitions provided by students
- Compare student-generated definitions with formal definitions from literature
- Challenge students to refine their initial definitions based on the discussion and evidence
Digital Enhancement
- Use chat tools or collaborative platforms like Padlet for Trigger activities
- Conduct pre-session activities via Moodle
- Use digital tools for sharing and discussing responses
- Bridge live sessions and independent learning with follow-up tasks