Like many terms used to describe teaching or learning, active learning defies simple definitions. The following excerpts of definitions offer some insight into what others think active learning is. As an exercise in active learning, try looking critically at these phrases and the full text definitions that follow them. What are some common themes in the definitions? How do the definitions differ from each other? Which definitions most closely resemble your prior conceptions of active learning?
Full text of definitions (on this page)
- [students] use their brains...studying ideas, solving problems, and applying what they learn (1)
- Active learners energetically strive to take a greater responsibility for their own learning. (2)
- students...engage in the process of building their own mental models from the information they are acquiring...should constantly test the validity of the model being constructed (3)
- involves the student 'as his/her own teacher' (4)
- classroom strategies that get students more involved in the subject matter... social interaction and less competition...students working together(5)
- engaging one's self (the learner) with the material being learned... teacher teaches the student how to function and how to get the task done within the context of the discipline, the course, the class. It distributes the learning responsibility among the students and the teacher.(6)
- putting our students in situations which compel them to read, speak, listen, think deeply, and write.... puts the responsibility of organizing what is to be learned in the hands of the learners themselves(7)
- [students] must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems... students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation... instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing (8)
- opportunities for learners to integrate new information, concepts, or skills into their own mental schema, through rephrasing, rehearsing, and practice (9)
- faculty become facilitators of learning, and students become active participants, engaging in a dialog with their colleagues and with the instructor (10)
- greater student engagement with critical thinking and 'higher levels' of learning...analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information...in contrast to absorption (11)
- knowledge [is] directly experienced, constructed, acted upon, tested, or revised by the learner (12)
Full text definitions with citations
(1) Silberman, M. 1996 (Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject) Back to Excerpt
When learning is active, students do most of the work. They use their brains...studying ideas, solving problems, and applying what they learn. Active learning is fast-paced, fun, supportive, and personally engaging...To learn something well, it helps to hear it, see it, ask questions about it, and discuss it with others. Above all, students need to 'do it'--figure things out by themselves, come up with examples, try out skills, and do assignments that depend on the knowledge they already have or must acquire.
(2) Glasgow 1996 (Doing Science) Back to Excerpts
Active learners energetically strive to take a greater responsibility for their own learning. They take a more dynamic role in deciding how and what they need to know, what they should be able to do, and how they are going to do it. Their roles extend further into educational self-management, and self-motivation becomes a greater force behind learning.
(3) Modell and Michael 1993 (Promoting Active Learning in Life Science Classrooms) Back to Excerpts
We define an active learning environment as one in which students individually are encouraged to engage in the process of building their own mental models from the information they are acquiring. In addition, as part of the active learning process, the student should constantly test the validity of the model being constructed.
(4) UC Davis TAC Handbook: Back to Excerpts
Active learning is an approach to learning that involves the student 'as his/her own teacher.' Keep in mind that it is an approach, not a method
(5) http://www.iastate.edu/general/Inside/1996/1101/facForum.html Back to Excerpts
Finding classroom strategies that get students more involved in the subject matter -- that is, promoting 'active learning'--...
The notion of active learning has developed over the last dozen years or so, said Licklider, among cognitive psychologists who note that learning occurs best through social interaction and less competition. Active learning promotes a variety of methods, including students working together in and outside of class, as well as class lectures
(6) http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/tlr/active.html Back to Excerpts
Although the ultimate responsibility for learning rests with the students, good teaching encourages students to put forth more effort, gives opportunities for practice, and provides feedback on performance and freedom in learning. These characteristics are the essential elements of active learning. Active learning is engaging one's self (the learner) with the material being learned. In the classroom, the teacher teaches the student how to function and how to get the task done within the context of the discipline, the course, the class. It distributes the learning responsibility among the students and the teacher.
(7) http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/active/ActiveLearningk-12.html Back to Excerpts
Active learning isn't a new idea. It goes back at least as far as Socrates and was a major emphasis among progressive educators like John Dewey. And yet, if you peer into many classrooms, we seem to have forgotten that learning is naturally an active process. It involves putting our students in situations which compel them to read, speak, listen, think deeply, and write. While well delivered lectures are valuable and are not uncommon, sometimes the thinking required while attending a lecture is low level comprehension that goes from the ear to the writing hand and leaves the mind untouched. Active learning puts the responsibility of organizing what is to be learned in the hands of the learners themselves, and ideally lends itself to a more diverse range of learning styles.
(8) http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/91-9dig.htm Back to Excerpts
Surprisingly, educators' use of the term active learning has relied more on intuitive understanding than a common definition. Consequently, many faculty assert that all learning is inherently active and that students are therefore actively involved while listening to formal presentations in the classroom. Analysis of the research literature (Chickering and Gamson 1987), however, suggests that students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing
(9) http://www.lib.utexas.edu/is/publications/active.html Back to Excerpts
First, a definition of active learning being used for this cookbook:
Library instruction activities that lead to active learning can last 5 minutes or several hours; the common goal is the provision of opportunities for learners to integrate new information, concepts, or skills into their own mental schema, through rephrasing, rehearsing, and practice. Activities can utilize group methods such as brainstorming, buzz groups or small group work. Individuals can experience active learning through paper and pencil exercises or individual seat work.
(10) http://www.uth.tmc.edu/apstracts/1996/advances/March/7s.html Back to Excerpts
Most students have spent the majority of their school career in passive learning environments in which faculty were disseminators of information, and students were required to memorize information or use specified algorithms to solve problems. In an active learning environment, students are encouraged to engage in the process of building and testing their own mental models from information that they are acquiring. In such a learner-centered environment, faculty become facilitators of learning, and students become active participants, engaging in a dialog with their colleagues and with the instructor.
(11) http://www.indiana.edu/~ict/grants_description.htm Back to Excerpts
Examples of active learning methods include, but are not limited to, collaborative learning, problem-based learning, case methods, course projects, simulations, and technology uses. Grants are intended to encourage greater student engagement with critical thinking and higher levels of learning … analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information … in contrast to absorption
(12) http://www.che.ufl.edu/SUCCEED/pubs/innovator/innovator.1.2/succeed3.html Back to Excerpts
In active learning, knowledge [is] directly experienced, constructed, acted upon, tested, or revised by the learner.[7]
The above test was taken from Ask Jeeves.com