What is Active Learning?

It is every educator’s job to ensure that their students deeply understand and fully engage with the content they’re being taught, rather than just passively presenting information. In short, a teacher should aim to engage their students in active learning.

To achieve this, it’s important to use a variety of teaching methods. Increasing your knowledge of various teaching strategies will help you to cater to every learner’s strengths, enabling them to learn more actively and be involved in their own education. 

In this article, we will specify what exactly active learning is, delve into its benefits, and provide some examples of active learning in the classroom along with our tips on how to engage students in active learning. 

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What is Active Learning in the Classroom?

Active learning refers to any teaching strategy which encourages students to fully engage in their education and play an active role in their own learning process. It has the student rather than the teacher at its centre, and focuses on how students learn rather than what they’re learning. 

Rather than passively receiving information from a teacher, active learning requires students to participate in the learning process and think hard about information to build their understanding of it. 

The idea of active learning is built upon constructivist theories, which state that people learn by connecting new ideas and information to knowledge they already have and past experiences. Skilled teachers will make this process more possible by providing the right environment, activities, and opportunities to foster active learning. 

Active Learning Versus Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning is a student-centred teaching technique in which learners often work in groups to discuss and attempt to solve a complex real-world problem related to the topic they’re currently studying. 

Active learning is often mistaken for being the same as Problem-Based Learning (PBL), however they are not the same thing. PBL is actually a form of active learning. It invites students to begin using critical reasoning skills to deepen their understanding of a topic, which is certainly one example of an active learning technique. There are, however, many other ways to promote active learning in the classroom and problem-based learning is just one method by which you can do this.

To learn more about the differences between various teaching techniques and how using a range of methods can help to enrich your lessons, read our article on 8 Teaching Methods to Use in the Classroom.

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Benefits of Active Learning

Ultimately, active learning has been shown to increase student outcome and thus it has become one of the most preferred classroom development strategies. Encouraging participation, engagement, and collaboration in learning has a range of highly beneficial impacts on students.

Increases Knowledge Retention

Active learning is scientifically proven to increase the retention of information. In one study, active learners were found to retain 93.5% of previously learned information compared to only 79% for passive learners after one month. This is because the process of active learning helps to reinforce material, creating memorable learning experiences and encouraging retrieval practice with quizzes and recall exercises. 

Leads to Higher Engagement

The core of active learning is involving students in their own education. This requires students to directly engage with learning material, rather than merely observing it, and therefore they often form a deeper connection to material and are actively interested in developing their knowledge. 

You can find more tips on how to involve students in their own learning in our article on 5 Ways to Maximise Pupil Voice.

Improves Collaboration Skills

Instead of relying on teacher-led training, active learning embraces the power of collaboration and social interaction to develop student knowledge. A key part of active learning is encouraging students to work together in groups to discuss and share ideas. This creates a learning community where students can help motivate each other and learn from their peer’s perspectives. 

Builds Self-Confidence

Active learning involves using a variety of teaching activities which pulls students out of their comfort zone and encourages them to try new ways of learning. Rather than just passively intaking information, they are expected to share and discuss their ideas and opinions. This process will help learners become more comfortable with speaking up and thus help them reduce self-doubt and build confidence. 

Sparks Creativity and Innovation

Stemming from its promotion of student contribution and collaboration, active learning encourages learners to use their imagination and expand their creativity. By being able to bounce ideas off of each other during group work, a class will naturally come up with more innovative solutions to problems as they learn from their fellow classmates and observe new possibilities.

Aids Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

Active learning activities such as debates or Q&A sessions encourage learners to think critically and consider how they would solve real-world problems. These forms of activities develop learners’ abilities to make decisions and construct stronger arguments to defend their opinions, as well as seeking solutions. All of these skills are highly valuable beyond the classroom and will help to enrich a child’s future. 

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Active Learning Examples

At the heart of active learning, there are three main principles:

• Engagement
• Reflection 
• Application

Learners should actively engage with your material, reflect on its content and relevance, and then apply what they’ve learnt in a practical and often collaborative situation. 

There are many active learning activities that can help promote these three principles, but we’ve listed a few of our recommended activities below.

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How to Engage Students in Active Learning

When incorporating active learning strategies into the classroom, it’s important to keep in mind your desired learning outcomes, the learner’s needs and characteristics, and the resources you have available.

To ensure you’re implementing methods that will truly benefit your students, consider asking questions such as:

• What would each student like to get out of the class?
• What proficiency and understanding level are your students at? 
• Is the activity suitable for your SEND students? If not, how can you alter it to suit every learner?
• Will shy students engage in the activity or will it add pressure to their day?
• What is the practical outcome of the activity?
• Do you have all the resources you need for the activity? 
• Is your plan financially viable?

For active learning strategies to really have an impact, it’s important that students are fully engaged in the activities. But how can you make this happen? We’ve compiled our top 5 tips for engaging students in active learning, below. 

Connect Learning to the Real World

A common question for students to ask is “when am I ever actually going to use this?” Luckily, active learning methods provide a great opportunity to link information back to its real-life applications. If a student knows that what they’re learning will benefit them outside of the classroom, they’re far more likely to engage with the content.  

Engage With Your Student’s Interests

Students tend to disengage if they’re finding a subject boring, however you can prevent this by linking the information you’re teaching to some of your learner’s personal interests. Learn what it is that excites each of your students and then consider ways you can input these interests into your active learning activities. For example, you could use football to demonstrate probability in maths, or use their favourite celebrities as a subject for an art project. 

Scaffold Tasks 

If you ask too much too soon of your students, giving them an activity to do before they have enough knowledge and understanding to complete it, your class will quickly become confused and disengaged. Thus, it’s beneficial to provide support at the beginning of every active learning activity, then gradually remove this as your students gain confidence and proficiency. This technique is called scaffolding, and helps to maintain engagement by keeping tasks achievable for all.

To learn more about this method of engaging and supporting students, explore our full article on Scaffolding in Education: A Guide for Teachers.

Encourage Students to Present and Share Work Regularly

Giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their thoughts and work to their peers can help drive engagement in a couple of ways. Firstly, students are likely to be held accountable to complete assigned work and will finish it to the best of their abilities due to the desire to impress their classmates. Additionally, it’s likely that students will respond well to hearing from someone other than their teacher, introducing variety into their lessons. 

Be Adaptable

Sometimes you may have planned an active learning activity that, when it comes to doing it, receives an unengaged response from students. This is natural and will happen to every teacher at some point. To combat this, it’s a good idea to have some alternate options of activities so that you’re able to switch up your lesson if it’s proving to be ineffective. By doing this, you’re ultimately giving your students more of a say in the way they are taught which will help improve engagement over time as you learn which style of learning your students respond well to or not. 

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Active learning is a fantastic way to involve students in their own education and therefore increase their understanding and engagement of important subjects. Students want to know that what they are learning is relevant to their lives outside of school, and active learning methods are a great way to show students ways in which they can apply the information they gain in the classroom to their personal interests. Ultimately, the benefits of active learning are numerous, so it’s worth increasing your use of this teaching method in your classroom and seeing how your students respond. 

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Further Resources:

• 8 Teaching Methods to Use in the Classroom
• What is Effective Teaching?
• How to Create a Positive Learning Environment
• What is Adaptive Teaching?