Active Learning
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At its core, active learning promotes student engagement in the learning process. Active learning increases many student success outcomes, including performance, enthusiasm and cognitive engagement.
What Is Active Learning?
Active learning is anything course-related that all students in a class section are called upon to do other than simply watching, listening, and taking notes. (Felder and Brent, 2009, "Active Learning: An Introduction").
Evidence for Active Learning
Evidence of active learning’s efficacy is abundant, with the number of individual studies easily in the thousands.
Reviews of active learning literature attempt to synthesize and articulate these results, and have generally found compelling evidence that increased learning gains and academic success are associated with the use active of learning. To view evidence for active learning, see our instructor resources for active learning page.
Active Learning Basics
There is no single, canonical definition for active learning. We recommend Felder & Brent’s (2009) definition of active learning as "anything course-related that all students in a class session are called upon to do other than simply watching, listening and taking notes" (p. 2). This definition is not authoritative. Some people may have different ideas about active learning, and that is okay.
It’s important to include active learning activities in a class session. Assigning homework problems to be done outside of class technically fits the definition of active learning, but most people think about active learning as activities happening during class time.
Although the phrase “active learning” has become popular in recent years, active learning techniques have been around for decades and are designed to engage students in the learning process.
Active learning can increase student participation, enthusiasm, and cognitive engagement! It’s a powerful approach to teaching and learning.
Active learning can be as simple as pausing a lecture and having students discuss the material in pairs or small groups, or as involved as team-based learning, and culminating course projects.
Check out our upcoming program offerings or apply to teach in the TILL to experiment with active learning! We are always looking to partner with new faculty.
Instructional Approaches
The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures typically are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions.
As long as students are doing and participating in the learning, active learning is happening!
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Team-based learning (TBL) is a structured form of small-group learning that emphasizes student preparation out of class and application of knowledge in class. Students are organized strategically into diverse teams, typically of 5-7 students, that work together throughout the class.
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In a POGIL classroom, students work in learning teams on guided inquiry exercises. The Process-Oriented component of POGIL is designed to have each instructor think about what process skills are important to develop for his or her students. The Guided Inquiry component of POGIL explicitly enhances the analytical and critical thinking skills of the students through the design of the activities (the learning cycle) and the use of groups requiring students to explain their reasoning.
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Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered approach in which students learn about a subject by working in groups to solve an open-ended problem. The problem motivates the student and drives the learning.
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Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups in which students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. It may be contrasted with competitive (students work against each other to achieve an academic goal such as a grade of “A” that only one or a few students can attain) and individualistic (students work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of the other students) learning.
Collaborative learning is based on the learner as the primary focus of instruction, where interaction and doing are of primary importance. It can occur with pairs of peers or larger groups, where the groups develop solutions to real-world problems.
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