Summary of Active Learning techniques
In brief
- There is a wide variety of active learning techniques that help develop different levels of knowledge and skills.
- Many of these techniques can be used with large classes and without much planning.
These techniques and many others have been originated by researchers from different disciplines whose studies on teaching and learning have culminated in a rich body of work. It provides clear and concise explanations and examples of a broad range of techniques along with primary resources for more information concerning original research and work on these techniques and many more.
Summary
Following is a summary of all the active learning techniques as a table.
| Technique name | Description | Promoted skills |
| Contemporary Issues Journal | Students keep a journal where they connect course information to current news or their own lives. | Writing, knowledge integration and synthesis |
| Fact or Opinion | Students distinguish facts from opinions in a text or a lecture. | Writing, learning how to learn |
| Debate | An instructional approach is used to encourage discussion between two or more people who are positioned on opposite sides of an issue or topic. | Communications, critical thinking, argumentative skills, research |
| Learning Cells | This is used to get students to ask and answer questions they develop themselves based on a reading or lecture. | Analysis and knowledge acquisition |
| Think-Pair-Share | Students take time on their own to consider a question, then with a partner and, optionally, after with the entire class. | Analysis and critical thinking, Knowledge integration and synthesis |
| Lecture Wrapper | At the end of a lecture, students identify the 3 most important points/big ideas and compare them to the instructor’s list. | Self-regulated learning |
| Peer Instruction | Students use a response system (i.e. clickers) to answer questions. | Communication skills, conceptual and evaluative reasoning |
| Analytical Teams | Students are put into groups, and each member is assigned a role. | Critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, learning how to learn |
| Buzz Groups | Students brainstorm or discuss a question or problem in small groups. | Analysis and critical thinking, problem-solving |
| Jigsaw | Students master content in small “expert” groups then reform into new groups (with one person from a different expert group) and teach each other what they learned in their previous groups. | Analysis and critical thinking, learning how to learn |
| Advance Organizers | Instructors provide a template for taking lecture/reading notes to help them organize their notes and help them focus on big ideas and connections between them. | Active listening, understanding |
| Guided Notes | Instructors provide a set of partially-completed notes that students complete while listening to help them focus on the key concepts presented in the lecture. | Active listening, understanding |
| Note-Taking Pairs | Students take turns sharing notes with a partner at intervals in a lecture. | Understanding, writing, organization skills |
| Fishbowl | A group of volunteer students have a debate, do a role-play or perform a specific task in front of the class. The rest of the class watches and discusses at the end. | Analysis and critical thinking, knowledge integration and synthesis |
| Three-Minute Message | Students present a concise three-minute argument with supporting evidence on a designated course topic. | Creative and critical thinking, problem-solving |
| Translate That! | An instructor pauses at regular intervals in a lecture and asks a student in the class to explain the previous segment in “plain English” to their classmates. | Analysis, critical and creative thinking |
| Case Studies | Students (individually, in pairs or in groups) analyze an authentic scenario and apply course ideas to provide a solution. | Inductive and analytical reasoning, knowledge integration |
| Problem-Based Learning | An instructional approach wherein students learn through the direct experience of solving problems (SALTISE). | Self-regulated learning, content analysis, application of knowledge |
| Think-aloud Pair Problem-solving | In pairs, students take turns listening while the other explains their solution and reasoning to a given problem. | Active listening, knowledge application |
| Directed Paraphrase | Students craft a concise explanation of a difficult course concept in their own words for a specific audience. | Content analysis, understanding |
| Insights-Resources-Application (IRAs) | In response to a lecture or reading, students: explain insights they’ve gained, identify an additional resource that has similar themes, and write how the reading applies to their own personal experience. | Understanding, critical thinking, learning how to learn |
| Reflective Writing | An instructional strategy to encourage students to engage on a deeper level with course learning material. | Knowledge organization, self-regulated learning |
| Concept Mapping | An instructional approach to visually show the relationships between and among different concepts (SALTISE). | Knowledge organization and integration, Relational reasoning |
| Group Grid | Students sort course concepts into categories on an instructor-generated grid. | Knowledge integration and synthesis, learning how to learn |
| Sketch Notes | Students create a visual representation of lecture content. | Critical and creative thinking, knowledge integration and synthesis |
Resources
Barkley, E., & Major, C. (n.d.). The K. Patricia Cross Academy. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://kpcrossacademy.org/.
Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2014). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.
Barkley, E. F. (2009). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.
Loadman, N. (2016, Jul 10). Punctuated Lectures: Classroom Assessment Technique. YouTube. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AttIxRWxYF4.
University of Toronto Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation. (n.d.). Active Learning and Adapting Teaching Techniques. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://tatp.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/Active-Learning-and-Adapting-Teaching-Techniques1.pdf.
