I know that Active Learning wasn’t one of the optimal conditions of language acquisition
that we learned about in the textbook, but I believe it should be.
I think that being a passive learner elongates the learning process
whereas active learning can shorten the process AND make it more fun.
Active learning obviously focuses upon the word “active.”
In active learning, the students must do something. Active learning tends to be engaging learning,
meaning that it keeps the mind engrossed in the learning.
Active learning or engaged learning has to be student-centered learning.
The teacher is no longer the focus of the classroom.
Did you hear that? So, active learning or engaged learning is
student-centered learning; the teacher is no longer the focus of the
classroom. The teacher is no longer the expert pouring
knowledge into the heads of the students. So, that is an extremely difficult concept
for many instructors and future instructors to grasp.
Instead of the expert, the teacher becomes the classroom manager who introduces ideas
or skills, arranges the learning environment or task,
and then allows the students to work with others to discover the lesson. Often, in these
situations, students learn more than just the lesson the instructor intended.
But that’s alright, if they learn different lessons during the task, great.
As long as they learn the main points that you want them to learn.
If they learn more, that’s great. That’s part of active learning. That’s
part of engaged learning. The discovery process.
Active learning means that students are not passive receptors in the classroom, instead
they are doing and thinking during instructional activities.
Also, the students carry the responsibility for learning.
The students carry the responsibility for learning.
So, did you get that? The students carry the responsibility for
learning. It’s not my responsibility as a teacher
to make sure that they learn. It’s the student’s responsibility in active
learning; it’s their responsibility to learn. And as the teacher I provide or facilitate
their learning. In other words, I provide the leadership for
their learning. Now, that is by no means an excuse to do a
horrible job. You can’t say: “Oh well, the students’
are supposed to learn this. It was their job.” No. But, it is important that you help the
students understand that they can’t just sit in class and study a book to be able to
pass. They have to take responsibility for their
learning. They have to get involved in their own learning.
Engaged learning is characterized by the fact that students are excited about their learning
and are having fun which creates intrinsic motivation for them
to continue learning. Usually this requires tasks that are challenging
to them rather than merely filling in blanks.
So if your students are bored, or if you think an activity is boring then your students are
going to think that activity is boring. So, how can you do something that will make
that more engaging? To make it an actual activity … an active activity.
Assessment is an important part of active, engaged learning.
Assessment is no longer just a test at the end checking how much information they remember.
You are still going to have those tests; that’s alright.
But the majority of the assessment should be on-going throughout the task with multiple
points of feedback from the teacher, classmates and themselves.
Employers want people who are constantly self-evaluating themselves and figuring out ways to improve.
In my opinion, it is our goal as instructors to get students so interested in accomplishing
a task that they are more concerned about effectively learning the skills involved than
they are about getting a particular grade. That’s not easily done.
And, for those of you who are elementary school teachers, I don’t know if it can be done
for six hours a day. But maybe there are certain times during the
day that students can be really engaged and they can care more about the skills that they
are learning than about their grade. It’s one of the reasons I allow students
to redo assignments. The student may be doing it to improve their
grade, but I’m allowing it because I know that the repetition will solidify the needed
skills they need to learn.
Throughout this course we’ll see how technology can serve as a tool to engage students in
learning in meaningful, fun and active ways.