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This is about how the learning experiences reflect what's happening in the real world.

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Biggs and Tang - constructivist alignment for curriculum design.

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Biggs and Tang - constructivist alignment for curriculum design.

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This isn't about constructivism and active learning, this is about the design of the curriculum. It's about how in a course design the objectives, content, activities and assessment are all aligned and relate to each other.

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(relates to constructivism)

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Description

Active learning refers to a broad range of learning and teaching strategies that are intentionally designed to engage students as active participants in their learning during face-to-face and/or online sessions or during informal study time.

Overview

Participation in active learning means more than involvement in busy work; it requires learners to deliberately think about ideas, concepts, content and skills that are the focus of meaningful tasks. Typically, these active learning strategies involve students working together but may also involve individual work and/or reflection. An important goal of active learning is to develop students' capability to learn how they learn.

A student-centred approach to teaching

Active learning is a student-centred approach to teaching, meaning that the focus of the educator is on what the students do before, during and/or after a teaching session. When designing a session less emphasis is placed on directly transmitting content from the educator to the student and more emphasis is given to designing learning activities that will actively engage students in making sense of the content.

Any learning environment or mode of delivery

Active learning can be used in any learning space, including lectures. Simple activities, such as pausing during the lecture to ask a question; to provide time for students to summarise their notes; to check their understanding of the content; to turn to the person next to them to ask a question or share an idea, are all example of active learning.

Simple to complex activities

Activities can range from the short and simple such as structured note taking, solving a simple mathematical problem and paired discussions, to longer, more complex activities or pedagogical approaches like case studies, role plays, and problem-based learning.

Not technology dependent

Numerous activities can be incorporated into a session without the use of technology, although at Griffith we have several digital.

Considerations

Explain your rationale to students

We can't assume that students will readily and willingly engage in active learning.  We need to help student understand and value the process of 'active learning' and identify themselves as 'active learners'. Appreciating the rationale and purpose for this approach will help them. At the beginning of the trimester and before you begin your first (few) activities, tell students why you're having them engaged in activities during class. This is particularly important if active learning is not common in your discipline

This explanation doesn't need to be long or complicated. You could simply say "In this course, we're going to be doing activities that are designed to help you understand the content of the course and prepare you for the assessments. Some of these are simple, brief activities that will involve working in pairs, sharing ideas and asking each other questions. Other activities may take longer and are similar to activities that you will encounter when you are in the workplace."

Implement

One of the most important aspects of active learning is choosing the activities you're going to use in class. When deciding what to have students do, ask yourself:

What are the most important things students should learn from this session (learning outcomes)?

What misconception or difficulty do students commonly have as it relates to this content?

What kind of practice can students do that will help them prepare for an upcoming assignment or assessment?

Use the answers to these questions to choose activities which will give students opportunities to meaningfully engage with the material.

Licence

© 2022 Griffith University.

The Griffith material on this web page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This licence does not extend to any underlying software, nor any non-Griffith images used under permission or commercial licence (as indicated). Materials linked to from this web page are subject to separate copyright conditions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Active learning refers to a broad range of learning and teaching strategies that are intentionally designed to engage students as active participants in their learning during face-to-face and/or online sessions or during informal study time. Participation in active learning means more than involvement in busy work; it requires learners to deliberately think about ideas, concepts, content and skills that are the focus of meaningful tasks.

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The idea that students are active rather than passive recipients of knowledge. Individual will 'construct' knowledge in their own way. They will connect new knowledge to what they already know - they might discard what they already know if they think it was wrong, they might modify what they already know, or they may add to what they know. This is called the negotiation of understanding. What students already know is called a schemata.
In Socio-constructivism, learners will learn best through social interaction and conversation with others (peer-peer, student-teacher).
Constructivism is the basis of Active Learning.

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Constructivism Learning Theory & Philosophy of Education

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Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their own understanding. Rather than passively receiving information, learners reflect on their experiences, create mental representations, and incorporate new knowledge into