Active Learning in the classroom
Sing, draw, play or invent Hanza George, Anisha Malhotra-Dalvi, Adithi Muralidhar, Savita Ladage and Sugra Chunawala
ctive learning is an important concept in the field of education and is based on the involvement of learners in the learning process. It suggests that learners learn better when they are not mere spectators but are engaged with the materials to be learned. Various methods often called Active Learning Strategies have been suggested to facilitate learning in classrooms, such as the use of probing questions to construct knowledge, inclusion of games, art, role-play, peer teaching, group activities, debates, discussions, quizzes, technology-based simulations and many more. Active Learning Strategies (ALS) promote studentcentered learning and have become an integral part of classroom teaching-learning processes at the school level. Despite their significance in education, ALS often receive mixed reviews from teachers. The teachers’ reasons for resistance to ALS are many; ranging from large numbers of students in classrooms, lack of infrastructure, issues related to class control, time management, vastness of the syllabus, etc. While these concerns are relevant, there are also instances where motivated teachers move beyond these hurdles to engage students creatively by using ALS. In this article, we reflect upon two aspects of ALS. First, we share some practices that we observed teachers using in their attempts to engage students in the classroom and second, we discuss the development of a teaching aid and its use during teacher training aimed at promoting active learning. In each of our examples, we demonstrate the adaptability of ALS techniques as teachers have the ability to customize the activities and actively engage students using a variety of methods as per their learning objectives.
Take the example of Mane*, an enthusiastic mathematics and science teacher with over 30 years of teaching experience, who teaches in a rural school in Pune. He shares, “Previously we used to encourage rote memorization, but things have changed. Now exams are also evolving; we know 16
TEACHER PLUS, JULY 2020
that students will be able to perform well only if they understand the concepts and think critically. Traditional rote learning will not work anymore; it is important to shift to active learning.� On a cloudy afternoon, during a power cut, we observed Mane teaching about electric current and electric circuits. He did not let the lack of electricity deter him from using the PhET interactive simulations on his laptop. After some explaining, he handed over the virtual lab and the components of circuits to students, whose faces lit up when the bulb glowed. Students experimented with materials around them, such as a metal wristwatch, a rusted iron nail, etc. "Why is the wristwatch getting heated up?" wondered a group during the discussions that followed the activity.
Photos courtesy: Sugra Chunawala
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Students using a metal wristwatch to complete the circuit
