Active learning: Hands-on meets minds-on
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj9957
AI from the screen into the physical world When we turn off the system’s intelligent guidance such that students are freely performing tower-building activities on their own (similar to most current museum exhibits and maker spaces), they still enjoy it, but they learn far less (3). Thus, we can more precisely define this effective form of active learning as engaging students in inquiry tasks where they predict and explain, prompted by contrasting cases associated with learning goals and supported by varied repetition with feedback.
Active learning in the community One such Playful Learning Landscape project, Urban Thinkscape (5) (see photo), transformed a bus stop in West Philadelphia by designing activities that children can do while they and their families wait for the bus. The goal was to spark parent-child interactions, which are known to promote better language skills. Puzzle walls, hidden figure designs, a story-building installation, and a hopscotch crafted from the happy-sad test (6) for executive function became catalysts for the study of spatial language, rich conversations, and impulse control. Observational data suggest that language conversations between parents and children, question asking, and spatial language known to build STEM scores were greater at Urban Thinkscape than at a control playground site in the same area.
Developing executive functioning through less-structured time An alternative is to develop executive function skills during less-structured activities such as play, outings, and reading—activities that have long been available for many children but that have been displaced in recent times by more-structured activities. Less-structured activities give children opportunities to explore, engage curiosity, make choices, and set goals, where adults may provide guidance and feedback but not explicit structured direction. Less-structured time can also provide opportunities to observe, learn from, and engage with others.
Children who spend more time in less-structured activities show better executive function, after controlling for socioeconomic factors. … Less-structured time that permits choice, playful exploration, and interaction with others may promote the development of executive functioning and learning at home and in school by allowing children a more active role in goal-directed behavior and knowledge acquisition.
Physically active learning There are rich neural connections that project between the motor and visual system, including the spatial imagination. These connections are arguably why people can design and use multipart tools. When people use their hands to help model physical systems, they can solve problems that they cannot do verbally or by sight alone, such as explaining the behavior of imagined gears or water in a tilting glass (13, 14). By asking students to use their hands to model physical phenomena, it may help them build a mental model of how the world works.
A second application of physically active learning involves providing students with the opportunity to move visible objects, which harnesses the visual system to help them see patterns and new structures in the objects that they move. For instance, by moving small plastic pieces, children are more likely to figure out how to solve 1/4 of 12 pieces than if they only look at the pieces, even if those pieces are preorganized into four groups of three pieces each. The children are also more likely to generalize their learning than if they simply rely on verbal solutions (15).
Students may learn more than they think The effortlessness associated with listening to a well-presented lecture can mislead students (and instructors) into thinking that they are learning a lot. … Students learned significantly more with active learning (as expected), and they also felt that they learned from it—but their feeling of learning was more pronounced with the well-presented traditional lectures.
Course evaluations based on students’ perceptions of learning could inadvertently promote inferior methods of instruction—a superstar lecturer can explain things in such a way as to make students feel like they are learning more than they actually are. By contrast, the cognitive effort involved in active learning is a sign of effective learning, even if students may not always perceive it that way.
Equity requires heads and hearts Classes that used active learning to engage students for two-thirds or more of the total instructional time had a 42% reduction in the between-student difference on exam scores and a 76% reduction in the between-student difference in passing rate compared with classes that did not use active learning (23).
Minoritized students also gain disproportionate benefits from a culture of inclusion and belonging in STEM—classes where instructors demonstrate respect for students as learners and a commitment to their success and where group work creates a sense of shared purpose and community (25). Taken together, the data support a “heads and hearts” approach, where instructors combine deliberate practice and psychosocial safety.
Instructor decisions and student anxiety In traditional lectures, students sometimes describe feeling as though they are the only person in the room who does not understand the content. Conversely, in active learning, students find it useful to work with peers, who can help them realize that they are not the only ones struggling to grasp a scientific concept. However, if students are assigned to work with students that they do not know or are asked to speak out in front of the whole class, their “fear of negative evaluation” in these social situations can result in higher anxiety (26, 27).