Active Learning

What is Active Learning?

It is a planned series of actions or events to invite the participant to
process, apply, interact and share experiences as part of the educational
process. Active learning means developing and implementing planned
activities to engage participants to be the partner in the activity. Active
learning is a process whereby students engage in activities, such as
reading, writing, discussion, or problem solving that promote analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation of class content. Cooperative learning,
problem-based learning, and the use of case methods and simulations are
some approaches that promote active learning.

Active Learning" is anything that students do in a classroom other

than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. This includes
everything from listening practices which help the students to absorb
what they hear, to short writing exercises in which students react to
lecture material, to complex group exercises in which students apply
course material to "real life" situations and/or to new problems.

Using active learning does not mean abandoning the lecture format,
but it does take class time. Using The PPP mode (Pose, Pause and
Pick)Lecturers who use active learning pause frequently during the
period–once every fifteen minutes or so–to give students a few minutes
to work with the information they're providing. They may ask students
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to respond to a question, to summarize important concepts in writing, or
compare notes with a partner. For some lecture-based classes, using
active learning may be a bit more challenging because of class size or
room limitations such as fixed seating. Breaking students into groups
under these circumstances may not be possible, but other strategies such
as individual writing or paired activities are quite possible and lead to
good results.

Students and their learning needs are at the center of active learning.
There are any number of teaching strategies that can be employed to
actively engage students in the learning process, including group
discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays, journal writing,
and structured learning groups. The benefits to using such activities are
many. They include improved critical thinking skills, increased retention
and transfer of new information, increased motivation, and improved
interpersonal skills.

Categories of Active Learning Strategies

There are four broad categories of learning strategies that one might use
in an active learning classroom:

 individual activities
 paired activities
 informal small groups
 cooperative student projects

You choice of these will depend on the size of your class, your physical
space, your objectives, the amount of time you have to devote to the
activity, and your comfort level with the strategy.

Planning an Active Learning Activity

When planning an active learning activity, answering the following

questions will help you clarify your goals and structure.

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  What are your objectives for the activity?
 Who will be interacting? Will students pair up with someone
beside them or someone sitting behind/in front of them? Should
they pair up with someone with a different background? Someone
they don't know yet?
 When does the activity occur during the class? Beginning?
Middle? End? How much time are you willing to spend on it?
 Will students write down their answers/ideas/questions or just
discuss them?
 Will students turn in the responses or not? If they are asked to turn
them in, should they put their names on them?
 Will you give individuals a minute or so to reflect on the answer
before discussing it or will they just jump right into a discussion?
 Will you grade their responses or not?
 How will students share the paired work with the whole class?
Will you call on individuals randomly or will you solicit
volunteers?
 If students are responding to a question you pose, how are you
going to ensure that they leave with confidence in their
understanding? (Often, if various student answers are discussed
without the instructor explicitly indicating which ones are "right,"
students become frustrated. Even with a question that has no
absolute "right" answer, students want to know what the
instructor's stand on the question is.)
 What preparation do you need to use the activity? What
preparation do the students need in order to participate fully?

Keys to Success

 Be creative! Invent new strategies and adapt existing ones to your

needs.
 Start small and be brief.
 Develop a plan for an active learning activity, try it out, collect
feedback, then modify and try it again.

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  Start from the first day of class and stick with it. Students will
come to expect active learning and perform better.
 Be explicit with students about why you are doing this and what
you know about the learning process.
 Request students vary their seating arrangements to increase their
chances to work with different people. Have students occasionally
pair up with the student behind them, since friends often sit side by
side.
 Use questions from in class activities on tests. For example,
include a short essay question that was used in a think/pair/share.
 Negotiate a signal for students to stop talking.
 Randomly call on pairs to share.
 Find a colleague or two to plan with (and perhaps teach with)
while you're implementing active learning activities.
 Continue learning through workshops, reading, and practice.

Some of the major characteristics associated with active

learning strategies include:
1. Students are involved in more than passive listening
2. Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing)
3. There is less emphasis placed on information transmission and greater
emphasis placed on developing student skills
4. There is greater emphasis placed on the exploration of attitudes and
values
5. Student motivation is increased (especially for adult learners)
6. Students can receive immediate feedback from their instructor
7. Students are involved in higher order thinking (HOTs)(analysis,
synthesis, evaluation).

What obstacles or barriers prevent faculty from using

active learning strategies?
Six commonly mentioned obstacles to using active learning strategies
include:
A. You cannot cover as much course content in the time available;

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B. Devising active learning strategies takes too much pre-class
preparation;
C. Large class sizes prevents implementation of active learning
strategies;
D. Most instructors think of themselves as being good lecturers;
E. There is a lack of materials or equipment needed to support active
learning approaches;

Active Learning Techniques

When students engage with each other in learning tasks, they remember
material better and they figure out how to apply and extend their new
knowledge more effectively. In addition, this approach promotes
learning among students from diverse backgrounds and who have
diverse learning styles.

Think pair share strategy

Think pair share is a collaborative teaching strategy first proposed by

Frank Lyman in 1981.
Think Pair Share:
Think _pair _share (TPS) is collaborative learning strategy where
students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an
assigned reading. This strategy requires students to (1) think individually
about a topic
or answer to a question ; (2) and share ideas with classmates. Discussing

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with a partner maximizes participations, focuses attention and engages
students in comprehending the reading material.

How it works?
The teacher acts as facilitator and asks an open ended question and
students think quietly about it for a minute or two. Then every student
pairs up with a partner and they discuss the question from two to five
minutes. Finally the whole class engages in Discussion where students
raise their hands and share all thoughts and ideas they have gathered.

Why use Think-Pair-Share ?

1. It helps students think individually about a topic or answer a question.
2. It teaches students to share ideas with classmates and builds oral
communication skills.
3. It helps focus attention and engage students in comprehending the
reading
material.

How to use Think-Pair-Share?

1. Decide upon the text to be read and develop the set of questions or
prompts that target key content concept.
2. Describe the purpose of the strategy and provide guidelines for
discussions.
3. Model the procedure to ensure that students understand how to use the
strategy.
4. Monitor and support students as they work through the following :

a) T : (Think) teachers begin by asking a specific question about the

text.
Students 'think' about what they know or have learned about the topic.
b) P : (pair) each student should be paired with another student or a
small group.
c) S : (share) students share their thoughts with others. Teachers
expand the "

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share" into a whole _ class discussion.

The Benefits :
1. Some students feel safer and more relaxed when talking in small
groups,
rather having to speak in front of the entire class.
2. Think-Pair-Share activity gives them the opportunity to feel more
comfortable sharing their thoughts.
3. In addition to fostering social skills, this strategy also improves
students'
speaking and listening skills. When pairs brainstorm together, each
student
learns from their partner.
4. This can help students expand their vocabulary as they learn new
words
from their peers and build on their prior knowledge on topic.
5. This process is easy to prepare and takes only a small amount of time
to perform in class.
6. Different kinds and levels of questions can be asked from lower order
to higher order thinking.
7. Think-Pair-Share activity is designed to help students understand the
concept of the given topic, develop their abilities to filter the
information, formulate ideas and thoughts, and draw conclusions.
8. Think-Pair-Share help students appreciate the different
communication skills.

 Problem-based learning
 The advantages of problem-based learning activities include
developing students problem solving and decision making skills;
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develop student’s critical thinking skills, encouraging critical
reflection and enabling the appreciation of ambiguity in
situations.