Active Learning
When you hear or read the phrase “active learning” what comes to mind? Perhaps you envision students doing hands-on projects, interacting in small-group discussions, or completing a problem-solving task. How about reading a book or listening to a lecture? Would you consider those situations to be active learning? Maybe you, like many others, have been under the impression that reading and lectures are passive, not active, learning methods. The phrase “active learning” can lead us down the wrong track into thinking there is such a thing as “passive learning” as if there are two types of learning and one is better than the other. However, all learning is active learning.
Passive learning is an oxymoron
During a webinar I watched titled “Engaging College Students using Active Learning Techniques” Claire Major defined learning as “the process that leads to some kind of change” and active learning as “the level of mental effort that students put into their learning.” Lectures and reading assignments can lead to change and prompt mental effort. And projects, discussions, or tasks can be completed without leading to any change or requiring mental effort. It is important not to be fooled into thinking that learning can take place only when students look like they are actively doing something. Activities that require movement, interaction, or creating something can lead to change and prompt high levels of mental effort but so can reading and listening. There is not active vs. passive learning. Students are either learning or not learning.
All learning is active learning
If mental effort is required and a change in knowledge, understanding, or skill is taking place, then learning is happening. If those things are not occurring, then learning is not taking place, and that is why some people say there is no such thing as passive learning.
Rather than referring to learning as either active or passive, it would be beneficial to make a distinction between learning and performing. As Carl Hendrick has pointed out, “students can give the impression that they are learning by being actively engaged in an activity but with little actual cognitive expenditure.” Conversely, students who are “listening . . . or even simply reading in silence, could well be radically transforming their understanding.” Learning either occurs or it does not, and “evaluating learning through things such as student engagement is a poor proxy indicator of learning.”
It is the responsibility of teachers to facilitate learning and not mistake performing as an indication that learning is occurring. Facilitating learning involves using techniques that prompt or require cognitive effort on the part of students whether they are actively engaging in tasks and discussions or silently listening and reading. Some of the techniques suggested by Major in her webinar can be found on the K. Patricia Cross Academy website. Or maybe it would be better if teachers recalled times in their learning experiences that required cognitive effort and led to change in their knowledge, understanding, or skill. What was taught? How was it taught? What level of cognitive effort was required? How did it effect change?
Performing is not to be mistaken as learning, but all learning is active learning whether students are still and silent or moving and vocal.