Introduction
Active learning is the process of involving students in the learning process through reading, writing, acting, moving, problem solving, discussing, etc. Involving students in the process gives them a deeper understanding of the material and leads to higher order thinking about class materials. After having incorporated active learning in my classes, I have become a strong advocate for active learning.
Active
learning requires that students be active in the classroom. This can include
doing problems, working with groups, participating in discussions, answering
questions that require more than just facts, writing essays, or any other
activity that is not just listening to a lecture. The basis for active
learning is that students learn more and better when they are participants
in the learning process. It has also been found that student attention
span starts to dramatically decrease about 12-15 minutes after the start
of a lecture. By breaking up the lecture, students are able to keep their
attention up, and therefore learn more.
Cooperative learning puts student together to solve problems or discuss concepts that leads to greater understanding. Group activities also give students better social skills. Group work can be out of class projects, but this site concentrates on activities that can be done in the classroom. Groups can be informal (those students who happen to be sitting together) or formal (assigned by the instructor). Groups can be short-term (for one or a few activities) or long-term (for one semester to a number of years).
There are a number of types of exercises that can be used in an active and cooperative learning setting. These exercises include modified lectures, think-pair-share, discussion questions, polls, textbook exercises, algorithm tracing, drama/role playing, and demonstration software. (These links open in a new window.) Additional information on drama/role playing exercises can also be found on the Kinesthetic Learning Activities web site.
The rest of this active and cooperative learning site gives information
about how I use active and cooperative learning. For other, more
general material, see my on-line annotated bibliography.