Active learning techniques

There are a number of activities that you can bring  into a standard lecture that are more active, drawing on the transformative learning aspects:

Think  - pair  - share: pose a question, students think of an individual response, share with a neighbour, then in a foursome. If appropriate, report back to the whole group. 

Buzz groups - all groups are working on the same task; later it can involve feeding back to the whole group.

Send a problem - a different problem is given to each group; they generate a solution and fold the paper and pass it on. This is repeated twice if time permits.  The last group synthesises and reports the best solutions/suggestions.

In small groups such as these approaches provide, students will learn to:

• Be good listeners
• Cooperate in a common tasks
• Give and receive constructive feedback
• Respect differences of opinion
• Support their judgments with evidence
• Appreciate diverse points of view

(Meyers & Jones, 1993) 

One Minute paper or Muddiest Point paper -  before a break ask students to write down what are the most important or most unclear points from what has been presented so far - get them to share with a neighbour to get a consensus, report them back to all, or even hand them in on leaving the lecture theatre. 

Line-up - there is a continuum of opinion to physically place yourself on. Explain to those around you why you are there.

The attached file has these featured examples and other group structure suggestions and activities for active learning that we evaluated in the PD session.  It opens here, or you can download it. 

Group Structures for Active Discussion Download Group Structures for Active Discussion

Many more ideas can be found here: Active Learning Techniques Links to an external site.    where the activities on this continuum are described.

Making use of technology to provide more active learning.

Socrative Links to an external site. (or similar, Kahoot Links to an external site. and Mentimeter Links to an external site.) are technology examples where you can provide quizzes to be answered in-class, on-screen or collect anonymous responses to questions posed in-class (as a poll) via student phones or computers. Group outcomes can be easily shared on the screen - and addressed.

All require some pre-loading but can be easily re-used.