Active learning is learning where students’ brains are actively involved in selecting information to be learned, organising it and connecting it to existing learning to build new knowledge. Passively listening or copying notes is not active learning, and nor is rote learning.
Active learning arises from the constructivist idea that people do not passively accept new knowledge but actively build it. Physical activity and class participation do not necessarily lead to active learning: the brain must be actively engaged with the concepts to be learned. The idea of active learning is compatible with both social constructivism and cognitive constructivism.
Advantages of active learning include a greater depth of learning, better performance, and improved motivation.
See also
- Active Learning | Center for Teaching & Learning (berkeley.edu)
- Active learning – Wikipedia
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology) (p. 61). Cambridge University Press
- What is active learning and what are the benefits? | Cambridge