Active and inclusive learning
Active learning is fundamentally about student engagement and participation. It involves students going beyond passive listening in lectures or ‘sitting back and being fed information’ to ‘learning by doing’ and being agents of their own learning, for example through discussion, problem solving, role-play, and creating something new (Gibbs, 1988; Kolb, 2015).
Active learning is beneficial in a number of ways including: engaging students in a way that reflects how they learn, by actively constructing their understanding through discussion and participation; by being more motivating and engaging and improving attendance (McLaughlin et al., 2014); and by improving attainment, including for non-traditional students (Freeman et al, 2014).
Active learning is more than a series of activities within a lecture or class. It also requires rethinking the design of a whole programme or unit and key active learning curriculum design approaches include: flipped learning; case-based and problem-based learning and applied projects.
Current activities
BILT’s involvement with this theme includes:
- Funding of 7 Education Development Projects
- Engagement of a BILT Student Fellow (Siqi Shen) in the theme area
- Show, Tell and Talk workshops
Resources and guidance