Lesson plan What is active learning?

Next steps
Here are some activities to help you to further explore active learning.

Observation
Observe a lesson taught by an experienced colleague. As you are watching, ask yourself what opportunities this colleague is creating for active learning. Think about what it is about the task which makes it an active learning opportunity.

After the lesson, think about how you might apply this in your own teaching.

Planning
Think of one thing you would like to try in your teaching this week which would make learning more active for your students. If you can, try it out in one of your classes. At the end of the session, reflect on what went well:
Why did it go well?
Were there things which did not go well?
Why do you think that was?
How could you make changes next time?

Next think about something you would like to try over the next term. Again, if you can, try it out with your students.

Then think about what you would like to put into your planning for the next academic year. What would you need to do to help that to happen?

Some people are not familiar with active learning. What would you say to a colleague to convince them of the benefits of an active learning approach?

You can use the Reflection worksheet to keep a written record of your thoughts and ideas.

Finding out more
There are lots of excellent materials to read and watch on Active Learning. We have listed a small section of these below:

The Visible Thinking Project and the ORBIT Project both have excellent websites, with lots of examples of activities which can be used to help students learn in an active way.

Professor John Hattie is a researcher in education. In his book Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning, Hattie looks at thousands of studies of teaching and learning. He then uses these studies to assess the impact of over 100 different strategies. His book includes reflective questions and activities for teachers and leaders.