Active learning, what is it all about?

Good bye traditional lecture! 21st century learners are challenge to be an active learner in their generation.

In the component of education, active learning is very important. By engaging students in the learning process, they are able to apply the knowledge they gain. Based from the experiences of the teachers, they should know that active learning stimulates higher order thinking skills and improves student motivation to learn.

Learners learning without meaning and understanding make applying information to future reasoning a difficult one. While learning is believed to be the product of teaching, one cannot always be certain that learning takes place just because the teacher or instructor teaches. Thus the teachers understanding of how learning takes place will influence teachers to consider how they teach and how the students learn.

Barr quoted that active learning will require teachers to shift their concept of learning from simple knowledge acquisition, with learner’s memorizing by rote, to a more consequential knowledge construction with application of skills. This shift moves from a teacher-centered teaching format, from lecture-based method to discussion and case based-applications.

Active learning is an approach to teaching that requires active students’ participation in classroom activities that have been carefully structured by teachers. This strategy can facilitate student engagement, enhance relevance, and improve motivation by actively involving students within the classroom and experiential and conducive learning environments. In active learning, the control of the environment shifts from the teacher to the learner. Each learner must actively engage in the learning environment and apply constructed knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Active learning always engages students as partners in the teaching-learning process and helps them take more responsibility for their own learning unlike before that learners were spoonfed. Active learning involves student engagement in activities, stimulating higher order thinking, problem solving, and critical analysis, and providing feedback about the learning process to both teacher and students. It also places greater emphasis on student exploration of attitudes, values and habits, and can increase student motivation to learn and improve their abilities. Arlyne B. Balansi