3 Simple Active Learning Strategies to Engage Your Students

Engaging students lights a fire underneath their learning! Learn the magic of active learning, and how to implement it in your classroom.

We’ve all had that droning university professor who monologued for the entire ninety minutes of class, reading a textbook in a tone as interesting as drying paint. When a class becomes an actual lecture, that’s when students’ engagement plummets — and with it, their grades (by about 30 percent, to be exact).

Engagement is vital for learning, no matter the age group. A classroom that keeps students’ interest (be they four or twenty-four) is one that will see high scores and high spirits. In younger students, engagement is especially important. This malleable stage is when youth can develop a taste for knowledge, an ever-present hunger that will surely lead them to future success.

But engaging anyone — especially kids who may not yet have the language to express their wants and needs — is a challenge, one that’s been tackled by pedagogy experts far and wide. One frequently approved solution is a method called active learning.

Active learning is when class becomes an activity — but it’s more than plain old hands-on work. We’re going to teach you the method to the magic, and offer tips to introduce this model to your own classroom.

First, let’s define “active learning”

Active learning itself is a rather broad concept. At its core, it’s meant to get students involved and interested in what they’re being taught. Rather than memorizing, they’re comprehending and applying information; rather than lecturing, the teacher acts as a guide.

Active learning goes beyond higher-order thinking, as classified by Bloom’s Taxonomy. It requires that students do more than only remembering and understanding, and leads them to analyze and evaluate the subject, forming connections and conjectures based on what they’ve learned.

Instead of simply feeding students information, this means helping them figure it out and draw conclusions on their own. It’s laying out the puzzle and motivating them to put together the pieces. In doing so, active learning involves a whole array of activities — but these activities aren’t meant to distract the student from the fact that they’re learning. It’s actually quite the opposite.

This high order of thinking requires — as put by Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching — “thinking about one’s thinking,” a higher level of awareness known as metacognition. It’s gaining an understanding, and then understanding how you understand in order to apply that knowledge to understanding something else. Understand?

The drawing board

Now that we’re clear on the concept, it’s time to strategize! A quick web search will show you that there’s a whole spectrum of theories and methods on active learning. After all, active learning itself is more of a foundation; how to best build upon it is up for speculation within the academic community.

Let’s build on these foundations ourselves. From there, you can figure out how to engage your own kids and students and maximize both their learning and their enjoyment thereof.

Active learning strategy #1: Collaborate

Collaborative work can be a great addition to any classroom and an easy and beneficial strategy for active learning. We’re all familiar with academic competition — who gets the best grades, who finish their work the fastest, etc. But competition can breed feelings of inferiority for comparatively low scorers, as well as so-called “gifted kid syndrome” that can follow high achievers into adulthood.

Instead, in a cooperative classroom, students are encouraged to work together. The first thing to come to mind is probably group projects — and though those do count as collaborative, they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

Rather than occasional project work in small groups, a cooperative classroom should be collaborating consistently. This may mean reading their own works aloud, critiquing and editing their peers’ writing project, or being allowed to assist each other with their work during an in-class study period.

In the end, students should still be individually responsible for their own work — the process may be shared with the rest of the class, but the product is still one’s own. Even so, just that bit of teamwork can teach valuable interpersonal skills, as well as lighten any performance anxieties. Not to mention, kids tend to think pretty favorably toward working together — 90 percent of them, according to a study by Dr. Tawfik A. Saleh of King Fahd University. Cooperation is not only more generally enjoyable than the competition but also serves to better motivate students to do their best and to better each other.

Active learning strategy #2: Promote independence

Encouraging collaboration doesn’t mean erasing individualism entirely — things are never that black and white. One of the most influential things you can give a child is a sense of agency, a sense that their choices and opinions count for something.

In education, the ability to make individual choices about their learning can ensure that everyone is appropriately challenged, motivated, and interested (they chose it themselves, after all). These aren’t group decisions, one choice for the whole class; this is letting every student choose for themselves and themselves only.

The concept of choice itself is no deus ex machina; not all decisions are created equal. Research published by the University of Pittsburgh noted that benefits are limited if the student deems the choice irrelevant to their own goals and interests. The decisions they make have to have an actual effect, along with a feeling of responsibility.

Let students choose their own class projects; the topic they want to cover, and what they want to create. If you have a lesson plan that’s more individual work than instruction, maybe try giving them a rundown and letting them go about it at their own pace in their own desired order.

These opportunities do more than give students the chance to choose; your transparency with your plans and ideas will build a bond of trust. Rather than feeling like bystanders in their own education expected to take what they’re given and do as they’re told, they’ll get to actually feel involved, to feel rightful ownership of their learning.

The choices you give shouldn’t just be a, b, or c — though you can guide them if they need some help, they should be coming up with the idea themselves. When a choice involves an appropriate amount of autonomy and weight, students get the opportunity to think for themselves in a way that feels like it matters.

Active learning strategy #3: Open dialogue

Letting students learn to speak and be heard is another key strategy in active learning, as well as a vital influence for personal development. As stated by Douglas Barnes, “learning floats on a sea of talk.” By encouraging students to ask questions, answering those questions, and asking for their opinions, you can deepen their understanding of the subject matter or course material while validating their opinions.

However, dead-end questions (think children’s television) can do more harm than good. Speaking shouldn’t be used to only review common knowledge, but to add something new to the conversation.

Insert a good old-fashioned chat anywhere in your lesson. Try introducing the subject and then opening up the floor for any preemptive thoughts. Take pauses to allow for questions and opinions throughout the class, and open the floor again at the end for final thoughts. Who knows, someone might raise something that helps you expand on the subject even further!

The concept of speech without moderation can be daunting for any teacher — who knows what these kids might blurt out? But the allowance of free speech is an opportunity. If a student says something incorrect or inappropriate, talk them through it without judgment. Remember, your job is to guide their growth. The best way to do that is by working from the roots.

Take learning above and beyond memorization

The concept of active learning might sound a bit new age, like another development from the era of SMART Boards and learning apps. However, though the label itself is somewhat recent, the conversation on engaging kids has gone on for longer than you think, and it continues to grow with every passing day.

Modern advancements have managed to take learning engagement to levels never before dreamt of, from the classroom to the living room. Apps like Lilo guide students through fun, personalized exercises. With multi-device access, as well as easy progress tracking for teachers, students can improve their literacy skills and have fun while doing it. If you want to take a more tech-oriented approach to engagement, check out how it works and sign up for free! It’s time that kids learn to enjoy learning, and we can help you get them there.