Active learning refers to teaching students in a way that involves them in the learning process rather than have them be passive listeners (as is done in lecture style teaching). Research has shown that involving students in the learning process is important as it allows students to engage with the material, think about what they are learning, and process the material presented. If you will be teaching sections or your own courses, the following techniques can be implemented to promote active learning in the classroom.
Discussion Section Techniques
- Think-Pair-Share: provide the students with a prompt to think about, pair up with a peer to discuss the prompt, then share their discussion with the class.
- Quick Writes: pose a thoughtful question and have students respond to the question in a brief write up. After students have completed their quick write, select students to share their responses. Side note: when I utilize quick writes in class, I use them to take attendance!
- Test Question Write-Up: allow students to come up with test questions- either independently or in groups. This provides students an opportunity to review the material that has been covered in class and think about it critically. As a class go through which are good questions and why. It may also be useful to compile a practice quiz/exam based on the student questions.
- Incorporate Technology: use discussion boards or online polling tools (such as Kahoot!, Poll Everywhere, or even clickers) in your sections to get an idea of how well students are understanding the material.
Good luck! You can also refer to the following references for additional active learning techniques:
https://teaching.berkeley.edu/active-learning-strategies
http://ctl.byu.edu/tip/active-learning-techniques
Megan Brooker says
December 5, 2017 at 9:13 pmAnother one of my favorite active learning techniques is the Snowball Fight. This is great way to get students in the winter spirit since we don’t get any snow here in southern California! Give everyone a blank piece of paper, then ask them a discussion question or something else related to the course. After they write down their answers, they crumple up their papers and then gently throw them around the room like snowballs. Everyone then picks up the nearest snowball, opens it up, and reads aloud the answer. This is a great way to get students to answer questions anonymously so that no one is afraid of sharing their answer or getting the question wrong.