Active Learning

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What is Active Learning?

Active learning moves teachers away from being lecturers to passive listeners and more like facilitators of engaging learning experiences. Active learning helps put students in charge of their learning with hands on activities. We know that the days of lecturing passive students are long gone, or at least they should be. Students that are active in meaningful activities will be more engaged, more motivated, and end up learning and retaining more. Here are just some examples of teaching strategies that prioritize active learning:

• Think Pair Share
• Partner and group games
• Debates
• Roleplaying
• Self-reflection 
• Group projects
• Science labs
• STEM projects
• Hands on learning /manipulatives
• Genius Hour / passion projects
• Research projects
• Field trips
• Whole body learning
• Multi-sensory learning

My Experiences with Active Learning

As an early childhood educator, I've been trained to focus on developmentally appropriate practice. I've always believed that young children learn through hands-on experiences, movement, choice and interest based learning. My goal is to keep my literacy and math mini-lessons between 5 and 10 minutes long. Also, I teach many concepts through song and dance (look up HeidiSongs if you're interested in one example) and we have a lot of movement breaks in my classroom. Active learning is not just about getting up and moving though. We use as many hands on activities as possible and I try to use think/pair/share in all of my lessons, usually as a warm up. I also have students complete partner and group games. Sometimes this is as simple as a card game in math or a phonics sort, but sometimes they are teamed up to complete a STEM challenge. I also keep my students active by using technology. For example, after they complete a STEM challenge, I may have students photograph and voice record their reflections through Seesaw, sharing with me as well as their parents. In my kindergarten classroom I also provide play time, which might be the most active learning experience of all. This is their chance to truly make their own choices, play and collaborate with peers, create social stories in the dramatic play area, be creative, be engineers, and explore. Overall, I really strive to include active learning practices in my classroom. This is not always easy because these activities sometimes require more material set up and prep. However, I have found active learning be the best way to keep my students engaged and active in their learning.

Exploring Active Learning

This week in my Edu776 class, I explored an example of active learning in the form of a lesson on the American Revolution. My partner and I created a Padlet to summarize our learning and reflections. I was able to check out the wonderful interactive projects created by Ms. Malhiot's elementary students. These interactive projects included QR codes so viewers could scan and hear the Audioboom recordings students had done to share historical facts and stories about the American revolution. Students also took photos, and sometimes dressed up, to put themselves into the PicCollages they made. This was a great example of active learning. Every project was unique and clearly created with enthusiasm by each student. It was wonderful to hear each student's own voice while viewing the projects. Please check out the Padlet my partner and I created to check it out for yourself.

Additional Resources

• Active Learning Strategies - A list of strategies from the Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning
• 17,000 Classroom Visits Can't Be Wrong: Strategies That Engage Students, Promote Active Learning, and Boost Achievement - A book I have used as a resource. Provides practical ideas for engaging students.