Active learning occurs when a person uses knowledge or skills in the service of achieving a learning objective. It is often mischaracterized with “learn by doing”, active learning instead is “learn by using”.
Example
In a typical lecture, students passively listen or watch the instructor. But learners won’t absorb much content simply by passive listening or watching. Rather, after initial use they use it solve specific problems related to lecture, have a debate with peers or write an essay on it.
Active learning was first defined by Bonwell and Eison (1991) as “anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing”.
Active learning helps students to ascend Bloom’s Taxonomy from remembering and understanding to analyzing and creating.
Active learning may be distilled into two kinds of activities:
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Doing things: Activities like discussion, idea mapping, and debate require students to construct knowledge through higher order thinking (such as recalling, applying, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and verbalizing concepts). This contrasts knowledge passively transmitted to students solely via listening, transcribing, memorizing, and reading.
Thinking about the things students are doing: Although not always explicitly noted in active learning literature, metacognition—students’ thinking about their own learning—promotes active learning by acquainting students with their own learning habits. Metacognition promotes students’ ability to self-assess and self-regulate themselves as learners. Metacognition often happens through student feedback methods, which open up student-instructor dialogue about teaching and learning methods.
References: https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/ActiveLearning