35 Participatory (Active) Learning

“Active learning simply means getting involved with the information presented — really thinking about it (analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating) rather than just passively receiving it and memorizing it. Active learning usually results in the generation of something new, such as a cause-effect relationship between two ideas, an inference, or an elaboration, and it always leads to deeper understanding.” King, A. (1993). From sage on the stage to guide on the side. College Teaching.

Learning is an active process

Only by engaging with the material or task can most students experience learning that lasts. A number of educational theorists propose that learners personally construct their own knowing. This suggests that the most effective learning may occur when, through personal interaction with the content or materials, learners actively create their own set of knowledge, skills, and values.

Learners understand and remember concepts by testing, exploring, and mentally manipulating ideas. This is often accomplished through discussion, debate, and dialogue. Physical and problem-solving skills improve with repeated practice and feedback. Changes in individual beliefs and attitudes are difficult to measure as they are often modified gradually as the learners are exposed to various viewpoints and experiences. Over time, this exposure leads to integration and synthesis of new information and perspectives.

All of this may create challenges for the instructor whose subject and/or approach has traditionally depended on the transmission of information from instructor to learner exclusively through uninterrupted lectures. The use of the traditional uninterrupted lecture to provide information does little to create learning that lasts. For a variety of reasons, many people are not primarily auditory learners. So learning-by-listening is not an effective strategy for everyone. It is helpful to think about how you can maintain and enhance learners’ active engagement.

Active learning is often measured by the level of learner participation which is a particularly difficult concept to define precisely. There are at least four main kinds:

• interaction between the instructor and the learners;
• interaction among learners themselves with the instructor facilitating;
• action by the learner individually while completing a task; and
• reflection by the learner individually while thinking, writing, or doing a task.

Learners’ comfort and facility with participation depend on a variety of learning preferences, cultural traditions, and previous learning experiences. (In some settings, for example, instruction may have been carried out in a formal atmosphere where an instructor makes an uninterrupted presentation, followed by questions. In other settings, participation might have been measured by attendance alone.) What’s more, learners may already possess information or abilities related to the topic. In this case, you may choose to share the teaching responsibilities with the learners.

The strategy you select for participatory or active learning may also depend on how well the learners have “learned to learn.” If the learners are skilled and experienced in the process of learning, an instructor might be able to plunge them into a discovery learning situation with little guidance. On the other hand, if they lack confidence and/or competence as learners, a more structured approach may be more effective.

Another important factor is the physical setting, including access to digital resources and instructional technologies. Some factors you might consider:

• The instructional technologies you use or involve your learners in using will depend on your knowledge, access, and familiarity with various options and the potential for learning (related to the outcome) that they offer.
• The reliability of internet connections for learners when using synchronous online teaching methods.
• Fixed seating in a large classroom may make small group discussion difficult.
• If your learners have assistive learning devices or visual or hearing issues, you may want to pay particular attention to how you arrange the learning space.

Decisions about how best to facilitate participatory learning, then, will be affected by:

• the comfort level of the instructor,
• teaching/learning considerations,
• the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the learners, and
• other practical and logistical issues.

NOTE: Although the name of this element includes the word participatory, it is important to build participation and engagement into the entire lesson.

Strategies for Engaging the Learners

In the FLO, instructors are encouraged to build active learner engagement into their lessons. Strategies that encourage active participation within this setting could include:

• small group discussion about a specific question or problem arising from the course material,
• time online asynchronously or during an in-person session for student reflection through writing, discussion, or question development,
• short application tasks like solving an equation or a small problem,
• prediction or forecasting of answers to questions (often at the beginning of the lesson),
• students working on a problem and then evaluating each other’s work,
• role plays, case studies, scenarios, or simulations, and
• posing a “thought” question—one that is not answered until later in the lesson.