Active Learning

With the world changing so fast we need to consider ways to boost learning for everyone.  Active learning is where you are involved and interacting with the learning.

The brain science is clear that passive learning (where you just sit and listen to someone talk) is less effective than active learning.  The idea is that the more multi-sensory learning experiences are, the more this deeply embeds in terms of neural connections.

Here are a couple of ideas to make your learning more active, even if it is online:

• Spend a couple of minutes prior to a course thinking about what you would like to get out of it

• What questions do you have?

• How can you involve the different senses in your learning?

• Take notes

• Use case studies and scenarios

• Use videos and music

• Discuss what you are learning with someone else

• Use breakout rooms so people can have talk to one another about what they are learning

• Develop an action plan at the end of the course

• Take small steps to embed the learning after the course

• Reflect on what you have learned and how you can apply it

• Incorporate what you have learned with your personal experiences and knowledge

• Can you involve movement in the learnings?

• Make it fun and relevant.

I remember reading about an organisation that was teaching electrical circuits to students and the trainer cleared the room and created different parts of a circuit using cardboard and the group had to set the pieces up on the floor in the classroom to create a working circuit.  What a great way to use active learning.

We all need to take charge of our own learning and development because as Alvin Toffler shared many years ago, ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.’