Active Learning requires the learner to create and make sense of knowledge through their own experiences. Thoughts and ideas are not always easy to convert to "objects". The way for ideas to be re-experienced is through techniques such as co-operative learning and experiential learning. These techniques are recognised as being part of the active learning process. Students need to assume responsibility for the knowledge that they are going to acquire, or the skills that need to develop, through their own actions, own decisions, life choices, methods of study, methods of learning and learning style.
This needs to be balanced with a need for the learner to have some reinforcement that the kind of "doing" or interaction with something, some person or some group, is also helping the learner to re-process the learning of the facts. Although this reinforcement is balanced by the learner's own abilities to find their own answers from the facts or a body of knowledge, in order to succeed, the learner receives immediate feedback or that they are allowed to solicit feedback on an activity in order to improve their understanding and awareness in the future. Some active learning techniques take little preparation and may be done spontaneously; others require much more preparation. In essence the learner can either work alone, in a pair, in a group or in the work place to answer critical questions, write a "review", a reflective piece, or apply a theory.
The Literature Review
Link to word doc.
Web links on active learning
Link to word doc.
Active Citizenship
Link to active citizenship page
Active Learning
Social and Moral Responsibility