Active Learning Strategies in Face-to-Face Courses
IDEA Paper #53 by Barbara J. Mills from the University of Texas at San Antonio
Active Learning is a means of engaging students in the process of doing, and thinking about what they are doing. The advantages to active learning include that students are more inclined to want to learn in the classroom and work more willingly toward goals set up by the teacher. Active learning becomes at times difficult to implement, or consider implementing, for instructors who might be fearful that through removing themselves from the lecture model they are giving up control to the students in the room.
Mills discusses six strategies for promoting a culture of active learning in the classroom:
- Think-Aloud Pair Problem Solving (TAPPS)
- Three-Step Interview
- Think-Pair-Share
- Visible Quiz (Staley, 2003)
- Value Line
- Send/Pass-a-problem
While these strategies in no way represent a definitive list of the ways in which active learning can be incorporated, they give us someplace to start.
Additional Resources and Strategies for implementing Active Learning:
- Vanderbilt provides an introductory guide to active learning—what does it mean and how does it look in the classroom? https://cft.vanderbilt.edu//cft/guides-sub-pages/active-learning/
- To learn more about flipping the classroom to provide opportunities for active learning, visit Carnegie Mellon’s website. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/flippingtheclass/index.html
- Waterloo has a resource for a number of active learning activities that can be done in class. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/developing-assignments/assignment-design/active-learning-activities
- See what University of Indiana and Bloomington is doing to promote a culture of active learning. https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/teaching-strategies/active-learning-classrooms/
- Washington St. Louis provides 10 ways to approach active learning. https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/2019/04/ten-easy-steps-to-active-learning/
- Harvard’s Bok Center Includes links to different tactics for active learning if you would like to learn more about a specific method. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/active-learning
- Yale’s article to help understand differences between active and traditional learning. http://ctl.yale.edu/sites/default/files/basic-page-supplementary-materials-files/active_learning_in_poli_sci_and_history.pdf
- To learn about why you might want to implement active learning in the classroom, visit the Brown University resources page. https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/teaching-resources/classroom-practices/active-learning
- For more information about active learning and a video to accompany, visit Georgetown University. https://commons.georgetown.edu/teaching/teach/