Active Learning Techniques
Hi, my name is Tracy Dougher and I am the Division
Head for Agricultural Education. I am also a Professor of
Horticulture. I have appointments in two departments
within the College of Ag. I am engaged with the Center
for Faculty Excellence as a member of the Teaching
Excellence Action Committee and the CFE Advisory
Board. I have completely flipped my Miracle Growing
class. I play the banjo and my husband plays the
bagpipes. I have two wonderful children who are
involved with scouting, the oldest is an Eagle Scout and
the younger is working on her Bronze Award in Venture
Scouting. I am the oldest of nine children, so I can be
very bossy sometimes. I did not learn teaching from
being bossy.
What is Active Learning?
• Active learning engages students in the
process of learning through activities and/or
discussion in class, as opposed to passively
listening to an expert. It emphasizes higherorder thinking and often involves group work.
• As opposed to “…continuous exposition by the
teacher.”
• What you are mostly NOT doing right now.
Freeman et al. (2014) Active Learning Increases Student Performance in
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. PNAS 111:8410
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1) The “Learning Styles” paper by Pashler
et al. notes that adults, if asked, will
express preferences for how information
is presented to them,
A. and evidence is abundant that adults learn best
in their preferred learning style.
B. but evidence is lacking that adults learn better
when taught in their preferred style and in some
cases the evidence runs contradictory to this
hypothesis.
C. and evidence is scant but emerging that adults
learn best when taught in their learning style.
2) Yamane (2006) concludes that
discussion-based courses are
predicated on students
A. reading and thinking about the course
material prior to attending class.
B. being exposed to the material for the first
time at the beginning of class.
C. testing themselves thoroughly on the
material prior to attending class.
3) Neurologically, mathematicians are
A. right brained.
B. left brained.
C. firing neurons in both hemispheres of the
brains.
4) Failure rates under traditional
lecturing are ______ over the rates
observed under active learning.
A. the same
B. 25% decreased
C. 55% increased
5) If a student comes to you and says
‘I study lots, but I don’t get it’, you
could suggest they
A. only go to lecture
B. only read the textbook
C. try one or several of the techniques
suggested by Dunlosky et al., such as imagery
for text, distributed practice, and elaborative
interrogation.
6) Dr. Dougher plays the
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
piano
harmonica
washtub bass
bagpipes
banjo
1) Pashler et al. (2009) Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence. Psychological
Science in the Public Interest. 9(3):105
2) Yamane (2006) Course Preparation Assignments: A Strategy for Creating
Discussion-Based Courses. Teaching Sociology 34:236
3) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002)
Understanding the Brain: Towards a New Learning Science.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/understanding-thebrain_9789264174986-en
4) Freeman et al. (2014) Active Learning Increases Student Performance in
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. PNAS 111(23):8410.
5) Dunlosky et al. (2013) Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning
Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational
Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 14(1):4