Active learning
Active learning is an approach to classroom teaching and learning that focusses on planning and guiding students through various activities that require learning by doing.
What you'll find here
When using active learning, instructors engage students through peer instruction techniques and hands-on interactions with course content material. This page contains a list of common active learning techniques and strategies including guided group discussion, collaborative problem-solving, hands-on experimentation, simulations and other approaches ideally suited for engaging different types of learners.
What is active learning?
Advances in educational research and neuroscience are contributing to our understading of how learning works and the techniques used to support student success. This includes active learning and team-based group work for example. Active learning promotes student engagement and higher-order thinking by encouraging students to work together as part of a knowledge-building process in class and online. Course activities are intentionally designed, implemented and facilitated by the course instructor to ensure that learning is reflective, collaborative and leads to the shared creation of knowledge and understanding. Using planned activities and guided instruction, students see their understanding of course content deepen with greater opportunities for interaction and collaboration with their peers.
Active Learning is an approach to teaching and learning that:
- places the needs, interests, attitudes, and experiences of the students at the center of instructional planning
- uses instructional strategies that are student-centred instead of instructor-centred
- engages students in activities that help develop higher-order thinking skills through the application of knowledge, analysis, and/or synthesis.
Active learning in the classroom
This method of learning works best in the classroom when instructors blend short lectures with class activities, combining the delivery of educational content with individual and group activities. Inviting students to explore, investigate, research, hypothesize, reflect on, discover, and problem solve as part of the overall learning process can be the main focus of an entire class period. One example of this would be to assign a reading or video for students to review at home before class and having them respond to related guiding questions. Setting students up to work during class time to apply the concepts using collaborative activities that promote learner interaction help to further stimulate engagement and higher order critical thinking practices.
Active learning spaces (SGW and Loyola)
The active learning classrooms have been designed to promote student engagement and collaboration. This page contains a list of active learning classrooms at SGW and Loyola along with video tours profiling the features, furniture, facilities, and technolgy.
Active learning techniques
These strategies and techniques have been developed by educators and researchers from a range of different disciplines. Their studies and practices in teaching and learning have culminated in a rich body of work providing clear and concise explanations and examples along with primary resources for more information concerning original research and work on these techniques and many more.
Analytic teams
Students are put into groups, and each member is assigned a role. Each role is a component of a complete analysis (i.e. Arguments for, arguments against, examples, opinions, etc.).
Buzz groups
Students brainstorm or discuss a question or problem in small groups.
Case studies
Students (individually, in pairs or groups) analyze an authentic scenario and apply course ideas to provide a solution.
Collaborative note-taking
A note-taking method where different students are assigned to take and share notes with the rest of the class.
Concept mapping
An instructional approach to visually show the relationships between and among different concepts.
Contemporary issues journal
Students keep a journal where they connect course information to current news or their own lives.
Debate
An instructional approach is used to encourage discussion between two or more people who are positioned on opposite sides of an issue or topic.
Directed paraphrase
Students craft a concise explanation of a difficult course concept in their own words for a specific audience.
Fact or opinion
Students distinguish facts from opinions in a text or a lecture.
Fishbowl
A group of volunteer students have a debate, do a roleplay or perform a specific task in front of the class. The rest of the class watches and discusses at the end.
Group grid
Students sort course concepts into categories into an instructor-generated grid.
Guided notes
Guided Notes Instructors provide a set of partially-completed notes that students complete while listening to help them focus on the key concepts presented in the lecture.
Insights-resources-application (IRAs)
In response to a lecture or reading, students: explain insights they’ve gained, identify an additional resource that has similar themes, and write how the reading applies to their own personal experience.
Jigsaw
Students master content in small “expert” groups then reform into new groups (with one person from a different expert group) and teach each other what they learned in their previous groups.
Learning cells
This is used to get students to ask and answer questions they develop themselves based on a reading or lecture.
Lecture wrapper
At the end of a lecture, students identify the 3 most important points/big ideas and compare them to the instructor’s list.
Note taking pairs
Students take turns sharing notes with a partner at intervals in a lecture.
Peer instruction
Students use response system (i.e. clickers) to answer questions. After voting, they explain their answer to a partner then vote again. Typically, the second round of voting sees better results as students learn from their peers.
Problem-based learning
An instructional approach wherein students learn through the direct experience of solving problems.
Reflective writing
An instructional strategy to encourage students to engage on a deeper level with course learning material.
Sketch notes
Students create a visual representation of lecture content.
Think-aloud pair problem-solving
In pairs, students take turns listening while the other explains their solution and reasoning to a given problem.
Think-pair-share
Students take time on their own to consider a question, then with a partner and, optionally, after with the entire class.
Three-minute message
Students present a concise three-minute argument with supporting evidence on a designated course topic.
Translate that!
An instructor pauses at regular intervals in a lecture and asks a student in the class to explain the previous segment in “plain English” to their classmates.
Learn more
Book a visit
If you would like to visit a classroom or consult with one of our team members please submit a request using our form.
Request a classroom
Please contact your department if you wish to request an active learning classroom for the next academic year, 2025-2026. Your request must be submitted through the SIS by January 12, 2025.
References and resources
- Active learning spaces: Teaching and learning experiences in active learning classrooms at McGill. McGill University.
- Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman M.K., Foreward by Mayer, R. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman. Barkley, E., & Major, C. (n.d.). The K. Patricia Cross Academy. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://kpcrossacademy.org/.
- Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2014). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.
- Barkley, E. F. (2009). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.
- Barkley, E.F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Biggs, J. (1999).Teaching for Quality Learning at University.SHRE and Open University Press
- Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. The classification of educational goals. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company, Inc.
- Bunce, D. M., Flens, E. A., & Neiles, K. Y. (2010). How Long Can Students Pay Attention in Class? A Study of Student Attention Decline Using Clickers. Journal of Chemical Education, 87, 1438-1443.
- Casale-Giannola, D., Schwarts Green, L. (2012). 41 active learning strategies for the inclusive classroom. London: Sage Publications.
- Doyle, T. (2011). Foreward. T. Zakrajsek. Learner-centered teaching: Putting the research on learning into practice. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing.
- Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., Wenderoth, M.P. Alberts, B. (ed.). (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111 (23), 8410-8415; first published on May May 12, 2014; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1319030111
- Jubain, Lin. “Using Collaborative Note-Taking to Promote an Inclusive Learning Environment.” UGuelph Office of Teaching and Learning, 2020.
- Loadman, N. (2016, Jul 10). Punctuated Lectures: Classroom Assessment Technique. YouTube. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AttIxRWxYF4.
- Nash, R. (2009). The active classroom: Practical strategies for involving students in the learning process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
- Nash, R. (2012). From seatwork to feetwork: Engaging students in their own learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
- Silberman, M. (1996). Active Learning: 101 strategies to teach any subject. Needham Heights, Mass: Simon & Shuster Co.
- Small G., Vorgan, G. (2008). iBrain: surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind. New York: HarperCollins.
- Twilight of the Lecture. Harvard Magazine.
- What is active learning? University of Minnesota, Center for Teaching and Learning.
- Why do active learning? Queen’s University.
- University of Toronto Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation. (n.d.). Active Learning and Adapting Teaching Techniques. Retrieved Dec 6, 2022, from https://tatp.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/Active-Learning-and-Adapting-Teaching-Techniques1.pdf.