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Active Learning
From: Chickering and Gamson, "Seven Principles
for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," AAHE Bulletin,
March 1987.
Good Practice Encourages Active Learning. Learning is not a spectator
sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to
teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments and spitting out answers.
They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it
to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make
what they learn part of themselves.
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I ask students to present their work in class.
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I ask my students to relate outside events or activities to the subjects
covered in my courses.
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I encourage students to challenge my ideas, the ideas of other students,
or those presented in readings or other course materials.
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I give my students concrete, real-life situations to analyze.
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I encourage students to suggest new readings, projects, or course
activities.
From: John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking (eds.),
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. http://books.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch1.html.
N ew developments in the science of learning emphasize the importance
of helping people take control of their own learning. Since understanding
is viewed as important, people must learn to recognize when they understand
and when they need more information. What strategies might they use to
assess whether they understand someone else's meaning? What kinds of evidence
do they need in order to believe particular claims? How can they build
their own theories of phenomena and test them effectively?
see Constructivism
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