Active Learning
“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to experiences, apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).
What is Active Learning?
Active learning is just that – active. Students are involved “in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing” (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). Active learning strategies range from simple pauses in lecture, which allow students time to reflect on lecture material, to complex group work to students actively learning outside the classroom. In a fully engaged active learning classroom, students are grappling with coursework and constantly processing what they are learning.
How Do I Incorporate Active Learning into My Course?
Fortunately, actively learning can become part of an instructor’s lectures in small steps. Incorporating one of these activities into your already created lectures is a great step in getting students to begin to be active during class time. Already crafted lectures can be easily turned into interactive lectures – “presentations that provide students with multiple brief opportunities for structured engagement. Interactive lectures involve both (a) several relatively brief segments of instructor talk (or mini-lectures) and (b) explicit opportunities for student thinking and responding” (Eison, 2010). Once you have begun with something small, you can incorporate more activities every semester. This comprehensive diagram lays out active learning activities that require the least amount of class time to the most amount of class time: (PDF)
As these activities are incorporated in the classroom, there may be challenges. Students sometimes resist active learning, but the more they participate and learn, students begin to see the benefits and even enjoy a more lively class. University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Teaching and Learning found in a recent study that students had “little resistance to active learning” (“Implementing Active Learning in Your Classroom,” n.d.). As these activities are introduced, the benefits should be explained to students; see below: What will my students gain from active learning? A meta-analysis comparing traditional lecture to active learning by Freeman et al. (2014) reported results from 225 studies across STEM disciplines. In active learning classes, students’ average exam scores were shown to improve by around 6%, and in addition, students involved in traditional lecture were found to be 1.5 times more likely to fail as compared to those in classes with significant active learning. Active learning activities can also be linked to a grade, so students will be more inclined to try something new.
Time is also a challenge when incorporating active learning activities. However, with proper skills, students will be able to do active learning activities outside of classroom, which in turn extends learning time and deepens under