Ideas for Encouraging Active Learning

• Brainstorm.  Ask a question and elicit multiple answers. Make a list of the answers and use it as a springboard for the presentation of the day's material.
• Keep moving.  It's harder for the eyes to glaze over when they have to keep following you as you move around the room. Students really wake up when you invade their "territory" by walking to the back of the room.
• Use humor.  An overhead or computer image of a cartoon might evoke a laugh, and it's hard to sleep and laugh at the same time. Also, cartoons can often be used to make important points.
• Make the familiar strange.  Take the standard treatment of a topic and turn the tables on it. One simple example would be to ask students to closely observe an object relevant to the topic.
• Use a drawing assignment.  Ask students to draw a picture of something relevant to the day's material. It will catch them off guard and often the pictures can be used to make key points.
• Think outside the box.  Use a poem to illustrate a point in management or a work of art to provoke a discussion in psychology. The uncommon is more memorable, and therefore such experiences are those most likely to have a long-term effect on students' thinking.
• Try something different.  Don't always start class in the same way. The unexpected can wake students up--if necessary, you can even literally wake them up by playing a piece of music.
• Use a mix of methods.  Don't rely on one or two teaching methods. Use a variety both to keep students interested and to effectively reach students with different learning styles.
• Build on successes.  Give students short, in-class assignments, including ones that they can complete easily. Then build on these small successes so students feel comfortable with the material and anxiety doesn't cloud learning.
• Do something daring--or at least a little bit out of the ordinary.  Come into class and say that you are throwing out your lesson plan for the day, and instead, want to discuss X, with X perhaps being some news story related to the course material. Or take students on a mini-field trip, or bring a colleague to class to spark discussion.
• Have students work in groups.Structure the group assignment so that all members of a group must actively participate.
• Know students' names, if at all possible, and then use those names.  Students are more likely to pay attention if they know that they may be called upon at any moment.
• Start with a "Quiz Show" item.  Give the student who answers correctly an extra point and then use these questions on the next test.

Go to  Ideas about Teaching for Understanding