Curriculum for Excellence
Presented on Friday 25 February 2011
Active Learning
Clare Boyd, Learning and Teaching Co-ordinator
Moira Andrew
Chartered Teacher, Teacher of the Deaf
What is Active Learning?
Active learning is learning which engages and challenges children's thinking, using real-life and imaginary situations.
Their learning experiences should provide them with a range of opportunities to continue to engage actively in their learning and to apply their knowledge and skills in practical ways (LTScotland)
Learning through real-life activities
In the Nursery...
The Wedding of Goldilocks and Dilan Donaldson
Learning through real-life activities in Primary
Minibeasts
Learning through real-life activities in Secondary...
China
A Voyage around the World
What did the Vikings eat?
An Archaeological dig
Other ways to get pupils actively involved in their learning
- Play games
- Take your learning outside
- Make the learning real (go to the shops to learn about money, write a blog etc.)
- Set a research task - individually or as a small group - and present the findings to the rest of the class (PowerPoint, talk, video, glog etc.)
- Use pupil ideas or interests to choose a topic in which to frame your lesson (news items, sporting event, wedding, etc.)
- Ask a pupil to lead the lesson – teach what they've learnt to the other pupils
Active Learning tasks to use when supporting pupils in a classroom
Set a challenge: (Think, Pair, Share; individual research; group challenge etc.)
Here's the answer, what's the question?
Use open-ended questions
- Can you find a way to …?
- What would happen if…?
- How do you know…?
- What did you notice about…?
- Tell me about…?
- Can you think of an example of...?
- Can you think of a better way to...?
- Why do you think that happened?
- How can you be sure that...?
Turn a question into a discussion:
- All bullies are bad people - agree or disagree?
- Goldilocks did not deserve to be saved - agree or disagree?
Ask a three-part question:
- ask pupil 1 to answer a question
- ask pupil 2 if their answer was right or wrong
- ask pupil 3 to explain the answer
Involve pupils in an evaluation of their learning at the end of a lesson or topic