Teaching Methods for Active Learning

The previous chapter presented several active learning methods—that can be incorporated into the lecture to avert student passivity and facilitate students’ meaningful learning. However, there are student-centered instructional methods available in which active student involvement is the norm. The main ones are discussion, group work, “community of learners” strategy, role-playing, simulation, case-method teaching, problem-based learning, and experiential learning. Because these methods may introduce some chaos into the classroom and may lead to some uncertain learning outcomes, they are regarded as more “high risk”. None of these methods should be used solely during a whole lesson period. Rather, they should be integrated with one another and with the lecture method, to enliven it.