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Active Learning Strategies
"Our view is that teachers who dominate the class by filling every vacant conversational space with the sound of their voice prevent students from learning" (Brookfield and Preskill, 1999, p. 198). Learning is a social, active process.
Instructional Strategies Guide
Creating active learning experiences requires a huge time commitment and a tremendous amount of planning. However, students benefit from these experiences and retain information at a much higher level than by using only lecture. Active learning strategies such as collaborative projects, brainstorming, think-pair-share, problem-based learning, role-playing, peer teaching, and games allow students to retain 75-90 percent of what they are learning.
Active Learning
Citing Meyers and Jones (1993), McKinney points out that active learning "derives from two basic assumptions: (1) that learning is by nature an active endeavor and (2) that different people learn in different ways." Includes a brief overview of different active learning strategies (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom
Bonwell and Eison define active learning as "instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing." A simple Q&A format addresses issues of how to create more "active" classroom spaces and what barriers teachers should be aware of (Charles C. Bonwell & James A. Eison)
Navigating the Bumpy Road to Student-Centered Instruction
Offers suggestions for dealing with resistance from students as teachers attempt to move their classes from spaces where students only "receive" knowledge to spaces where students are co-creators of knowledge (Richard Fedler & Rebecca Brent).
Types of Active Learning Strategies
Collaborative/Cooperative LearningCooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity
Defines cooperative learning as "the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning" (David W. Johnson & Others).
Issues to Consider and Decisions to Make When Using Cooperative or Collaborative Assignments
McKinney offers teachers a series of heuristic questions to help guide them in making up-front decisions that will affect the outcomes of their forays into cooperative/collaborative pedagogies (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology).
Problem-/Inquiry-Based Learning
Problem-Based Learning: An Introduction
Explains the basics of problem-based learning, defined here as "an instructional strategy in which students confront contextualized, ill-structured problems and strive to find meaningful solutions" (James Rhem).
Using the Internet to Promote Inquiry-Based Learning
This e-paper "describe[s] a structured approach to inquiry-based learning that uses the World Wide Web as a primary information resource. Specifically, we address an intuitive 8-step process that begins with an essential question and ends with a knowledge product produced by students, typically completed in a cooperative setting" (David Jakes et al.).
Other Resources:
Teaching Strategies - SUNY-Buffalo
This site includes a little bit of everything.
