Lesson plan What is active learning?

Seven misconceptions about active learning
1. 'Active learning is all about doing a particular activity'
Active learning is about encouraging students to engage actively with their studies. The learning objective is more important than the task itself.

For instance, many people think that a small-group task is automatically an active learning task. People also often think that a whole-class discussion cannot be an active learning task. In fact, whether something is an active learning task or not depends on the teacher's planning and style. Skilled teachers ask themselves questions such as:

In a class discussion am I using open-ended questions to get my students thinking?
In a group task do the students know what the learning aims are?
In a seminar activity do the students have effective resources to support them?

All activities must be relevant to what you want the students to learn. Some learning objectives might lend themselves best to students engaging in small-group seminars or a collaborative project. Other objectives might be better with a more lecture-style approach.

2. 'Active learning is the same as enquiry-based learning'
Enquiry-based learning is also known as problem-based learning. In enquiry-based learning, the student learns by exploring a series of questions. Sometimes these questions are set by the teacher, and sometimes by the students themselves. Students will then decide how they can answer these questions most effectively. Teachers will be on hand to help, but students lead the process. Enquiry-based learning can be an excellent technique for encouraging active learning. However, as we will see later in the 'Active learning in practice' section, it is only one of many techniques.

As with all teaching, the focus needs to be on the learning not the task. Ask yourself:

Is a student-led enquiry the most effective way for my students to achieve their learning objectives in this lesson?