How To Help Students Be Active Learners and Stop Passive Learning

The Downside of Passive Learning

Passive learning environments often lead to disengaged and uninterested students. Without opportunities for critical thinking, problem-solving, or active participation, students may find themselves bored and unmotivated. This lack of engagement can also hinder the development of essential executive functioning skills, such as planning, organization, and task initiation. As a result, students struggle to manage their time effectively and complete assignments, which negatively impacts their academic performance and overall well-being. This disengagement not only affects their grades but also diminishes their interest in learning, making education a tedious chore rather than an exciting journey of discovery.

What is Active Learning?

Active learning environments are bustling with energy and thought-provoking activities. Students are busy engaging with others, sharing ideas, and applying new content to prior knowledge. Active learners are continually involved in creative projects, self-directed learning, mindful activities, interactive discussions, and multisensory ways of processing. In addition, learners can discover how to use their inner voice and visualizations to make content memorable and easy to encode.

Active learning strategies involve a different teaching approach as well as engaging lesson ideas.  Students are not looked upon as empty vessels that need to be filled.  Rather, they come to the table with a wealth of knowledge and interests that can make the learning process both fun and memorable. 

Some active learning strategies that can be used in the classroom are:

• Roleplaying: The teacher divides the class into groups and allows the students to act out historical time periods or famous people. 
• Discussions: Classroom discussions involve a sustained exchange of thoughts and ideas with the purpose of developing opinions, understanding concepts, and acquiring skills.
• Hands-on learning: This approach directly involves learners by actively encouraging them to be physically involved with the subject matter.
• Cooperative learning: This strategy encourages small groups of students to work together on a common task.
• Think Pair Share: This cooperative approach allows students to work collectively to solve problems or answer questions. Students learn to:
• think independently 
• share ideas with peers
• discuss lessons with a partner 
• Learning Games: Learning games are integrated into lessons to offer practice with new learning content.  This allows the students to move around and have fun with other peers in small groups. 

Where Can I Find Active Lesson Ideas?

At Good Sensory Learning we offer a large selection of multisensory, active lessons for reading, writing, math and even cognitive tools to enhance processing such as visualization.  To learn more about these active and engaging products, CLICK HERE.

Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren

Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.

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