The New Education Mantra: Do Something to Learn Something

You know how it goes. You’re in the middle of your lesson, ready to explain the most important part of your curriculum for the day. You scan the room and see glazed over eyes (maybe even worse – some fluttering eyelids). Despite a few heads nodding along, you know students have zoned out. 

How do you get students to snap out of it, and what’s leading them there in the first place?

Why Passive Learning No Longer Works

Traditional, lecture-heavy instruction wasn’t built for the world we live in now. Students need engagement because of the highly interactive technological environment in which they have been raised. Learning sticks when students can get in on the action.

The Transition from Note-taking to Thinking

Active learning may be an educational buzzword, but to understand it, we must take a step back and look at what it’s really about. The concept centers around students, first and foremost, and making sure they’re at the center of any teaching method an educator uses. 

Quite simply, active learning asks students to do something to learn something.

They don’t sit back and consume information, take notes, then regurgitate it for a quiz. They create, explore, explain, and make meaning themselves. They produce ideas, responses, and solutions. Student voice matters. Choice matters. And purpose matters. 

And lest you be concerned, active learning still has clear goals and guidance. The difference is that students aren’t just along for the ride. They’re in the driver’s seat.

Active Learning Answers the Questions Passivity Can’t

There’s plenty of research to back this up, but you don’t need a research paper to know it’s true. 

When students actively engage with content, retention skyrockets. Making a piece of content prompts critical thinking about how to address a prompt or solve a problem. That forces students to process information more deeply, more intimately. They learn to connect new ideas to what they already know.

And this doesn’t happen in a vacuum – sharing their thinking builds accountability and ownership. When students explain concepts in their own words, they uncover gaps in understanding… and then they find the information they need to fill them. When students keep iterating, they practice critical thinking.

Continuously getting students out of their own heads is where the real magic happens, because with more advanced learning comes greater confidence.

Practically Speaking, How Do You Do It?

The first step is a mindset shift from teacher-dependent to student-driven (and teacher-supported). But if you’re asking yourself that question, it sounds like you’re ready to make that shift. 

To get you started, here are some ideas we’ve seen teachers try successfully:

• Students review what they learned in a lesson or explain a concept in video format
• Podcasting-style interviews where learners explain what they know to each other, in their own words
• Virtual science fairs that allow students to present their hypothesis and research findings 
• Media projects that require learners to give each other feedback as they develop their final video
• Music videos showing the plot and themes of a book

Again, the most important thing is creating projects that require students to reflect and share what they understand. It requires planning and a bit of passion to do it well, and it’s real learning that goes beyond mundane memorization techniques. 

Start Small and Build From There

You don’t have to overhaul everything tomorrow. There may be a multitude of ways you can try active learning, but you only have to start by applying it to one lesson. Replace one passive task with an active one. Or turn one lecture into an interactive research project work session. 

Whatever you decide to try, let students lead the learning and watch their level of engagement come back to life.