Promoting Active
Learning
Refer to Chapter 2 in Text
Opening Question:

Take a moment to reflect on a class
that had you involved.

Come up with a positive and a
negative example. Jot them down.
Your Goal: Get students
engaged in learning
Thinking, talking, moving, or emotionally
involved so that what you teach gets into
long-term memory.
Is this active? Nope. You want
to go from this outcome…
The secret to
being a bore is to
tell everything.
Voltaire
To doing this!
You have jotted down your reflections
and experiences with active learning.
Now, take a moment and share your
knowledge and experience by writing
it down. (you will want to keep a “notes sheet- you turn it in at the
end)
What is active learning?
 You
might think of active learning
as an approach to tutoring in
which students engage the
material they study through
reading, writing, talking,
listening, and reflecting.
 How can you connect this to your
learning style? Explain.
Active learning

Analysis of the research literature . . .
suggests that students must do more
than just listen: They must read,
write, discuss, or be engaged in
solving problems. Most important, to
be actively involved, students must
engage in such higher-order thinking
tasks as analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation (Chickering & Gamson 1987).

University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning
Information Processing Model
1.
Student receives/takes in information
2. Sorts through the information, organizes,
modifies so it makes sense
3. Stores the information in to long-term memory


Reflecting on you LSI how would step 1 look for
you?
What can one do to get information from STM to
LTM?
Promoting Active Learning
(complete the table below)
Comment from Student
Please give me the answers to
the worksheet items
I am just trying to get a D on the
tests so that I pass the course
I slept in & missed the class. Can
you teach me the information I
missed?
You think of one:
Appropriate Response from
Tutor
Source of
Information
Stage 1:
What do you do to
take accurate &
complete
information?
Stage 2: What do
you do to sort
through,
organize, &
modify
information so
that it makes
sense to you?
In Class
Reading
Assignments
Preparing for
Tests
Refer to page 18 in text
Stage 3: What do
you do to store &
retain information
for a test or
assignment?
Active lecturing
Although not recommended in
tutoring, it sometimes may be
necessary.
 Rule 1: Make it brief


Parts of a lecture
 Beginning
(introduce the skill)
 Middle (explain the skill)
 End (demonstrate the skill)
Beginning of the Session
Gain students’ attention, motivate
them to learn
 Use activity, question, picture, music,
or video clip to draw them into the
topic (this will depend on the subject)
 Write out the objectives
 Access prior knowledge


Use activities that allow students to
relate what they already know to the
concept to be studied.
What do you know about the ways
students learn?
Start with your clearest thoughts and
then move on to those that are kind
of out there!
Middle of the Session
 Pause
every twelve or fifteen
minutes for students to process
the information actively.

(Research shows that people can’t attend to lectures for
longer than about 12 or 15 minutes.)
Middle, cont.

You either have your learners’
attention or they can be making
meaning, but not both at the same
time. Teachers who don’t allow time
for students to process information
do an enormous amount of
reteaching.

Use active learning strategies to
prevent students from wandering off.
Middle, cont.
Strategies may be used with any size
class in only a few minutes’ time,
done alone or in pairs. (Use a timer to
keep to schedule.)
 Build in the pause as you plan the
lesson, or build it into your
PowerPoint
 Adapt strategies that fit the particular
lesson. Many strategies are adaptable
to multiple uses.

Take a few minutes to check your notes
( this would be done with a partner…)
 Summarize
the most important
information.
 Identify
(and clarify if possible) any
sticking points.
End of the lecture – wrapping it
up
Summarize information, provide
closure, and ask students to connect
the information to themselves, their
own values, and its application in the
world
 Ask students for the muddiest point
of the day (or something similar).
 Review and closure activities that
foreshadow the next lesson


Please answer the following:
3 things you gained
 2 things you will use in your class right
away
 1 thing you want to learn more about

Resources
Active Learening: Creating
Excitement in the Classroom by
Charles C. Bonwell and James A.
Eison
 University of Minnesota Center for
Teaching and Learning
 A Training Guide for College Tutors &
Peer Educators, Lipsky.
