Active Learning

?Hear and Forget, See and Remember, Do and Understand.?

Simply stated by Dr. D. Robinson, ? Active learning is ?doing? and this leads to understanding.? Learning by doing is a theme that many educators have stressed since John Dewey?s convincing argument that ?children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas?. (Hendrikson, 1984) Jean Piaget also stressed the need for concrete operations in early childhood. Some educators incorrectly assume that active learning is important only in the education of young children. However, Piaget makes it clear that this in not so: ?Experience is always necessary for intellectual development… the subject must be active….” (Hendrikson, 1984).

Students are more attentive when actively involved in the learning process. By the lesson being centered on the student, they feel their role in the activity is important. Active learning is especially important in educating young children because it not only keeps student interested in the lesson, but also helps students to retain more information. ?Research shows

that when people are engaged in doing something rather than just listening and watching they actually learn better.? (Peterson, 1996) Being that students are learning fundamental lessons in their early childhood, it is important that they retain the information that they learn. Active learning also has the benefit of promoting attributes that employers will value in the future. These attributes include better interaction skills and leadership skills.

?The whole point of active learning ?, says Bard Licker, associate professor in the department of professional studies in education, ?is to use strategies that cause the students to really be engaged with the subject matter.? There are many ways to implement active learning in the classroom. Some are as simple as the kinds of questions a teacher might ask, or a strategy they might use. Other ways to implement active learning are to provide students with long-term learning experiences, or group activities.

The subject of social studies is a good example of how active learning can be implemented in the classroom. For example, students learning about Native Americans can get into groups according to different tribes of North America. Each group will work together to learn as much as possible about the tribe of Native Americans that lived in their section of the continent.

For the final assessment of what they have learned, each group will put on a skit about their tribe. This activity will be both exciting and informative for the students.

Active Learning has been proven successful in many different classroom. This type of learning helps students to retain and apply lessons. It also teaches very important leadership and cooperative skills. By implementing active learning in more classrooms students will be better prepared for situations they will face in everyday life.

Bibliography

Hedrikson, L. (1984, September) Active Learning. ERIC Digest 17 [Article posted on the World Wide Web]. Retrieved September 9, 1998 from http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/%7Erallrich/learn/active.html

Peterson, J. (1996, October 31). Discussing active learning over dinner. Iowa State Daily. [Article posted on the World Wide Web] Retrieved September 9, 1998 from http://www.daily.iastate.edu/item /archives.html.