Active Learning

 Who remembers sitting at their desk and remembering every single word their teacher was saying?

The answer to this question is more than likely that NOBODY remembers much of what they learned in school while they were at

their desks listening to their teacher. The reason for this is that we only learn twenty percent of what we hear. But chances are

that you remember a specific thing from school if you were engaged in the lesson. I for once remember when I was in ESL class

we were in groups and we had to each come up with a story using our words of the week and act out the story. The reason that I

remember words from my ESL class and not much from reading class is because I was Actively Learning. Active Learning is a

method of instruction that involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving,

case studies, role plays and other methods. 

An Example of Active Learning 

In this blog active learning is shown by challenging students in grades 1st-7th from Coonley school to write a 6 Word Memoir based on saying

something about their school they like, an activity they enjoyed that year, something about themselves, or advice to others. All the

memoirs were combined into one giant slideshow and being featured on the school’s Twitter feed. Creating this challenge

made students actively participate in their school by coming up with a creative 6 word sentence which is not that easy. By having

students think of 6 words it creates a learning experience in which they had to participate in the end of year event. Students really

tried their best to make sure that their memoir was good and followed the guidelines. Working in groups projects is an example of

active learning and having the entire school involved in this memoir project definitely shows student involvement as opposed to

passing a survey, students had to think and create a memoir and be involved.

                                                        Image Source: Padlet by July Miranda

Implementing Active Learning

Should teachers implement this type of instruction in the classroom? The answer is yes! No one likes to go somewhere and just

sit while someone is talking and have little to no engagement. Active learning does take more time than having a direct instruction

but the amount of retention will be a whole lot more if students are being active in their education. This education resource gives the great many reasons why active learning is one of the best teaching instructions. 

Active Learning in a Diverse Learning Setting

I work with diverse learners and their needs are different from their peers and we as diverse teachers know firsthand that

Active Learning works very well with our students. All students need hands-on activities but our diverse students in particular gain

a lot of knowledge and understanding from being hands on. This article gives many strategies on how to implement Active Learning in our classroom.

Resources:

8 Active Learning Strategies

Active Learning during Remote Learning