By: Inas Essa
Researchers have shed light on the importance of shifting from traditional learning approaches to more innovative and active methods that shift the focus from the teacher to the learner. This approach has been tested on learners from different levels, from toddlers, to teenagers and university-level learners; the results indicated its efficacy.
A recent study from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, conducted by researchers from different European Universities studied the impact of active learning on higher education institutions' level for engineering students. It indicated how implementing active learning methods in engineering education has become the new norm and is seen as a prerequisite to prepare future engineers who would benefit from it in their professional life, as well as in tackling global issues.
What Differentiates Active Learning from Traditional Learning
In the active learning approach, teachers are expected and encouraged to introduce their students to problem-based learning, project-based learning, and challenge-based learning concepts to acquire the skills needed to tackle and solve global issues. "Challenge-based learning is often focused on the challenges that have a global impact. The students, who accept the challenge, often do not know what the solution will be. The facilitator is keeping them from focusing on a solution too early, and encourages them to analyze the challenge from multiple points of view, and from different scientific perspectives," says Vilma Sukacke, a researcher at KTU.
This learning approach is suitable for sustainability education, which, according to various scholars, calls for a contextual, problem-oriented, reflective, interdisciplinary, collaborative, participatory, ethical, and empowered learning environment. In the recent study, researchers conducted a systematic literature review to explore the three active learning methods—project-, problem- and challenge-based learning—according to the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) framework.
They highlighted that although this approach is efficient and would improve learners’ transversal skills, such as teamwork, communication, and conflict resolution, its application in the classroom may be challenging for both sides; educators and learners. "In my practice, I have noticed that sometimes students are questioning innovative learning methods and are considering them as a sort of a "game." As these classes often take place in a playful environment, full of different pencils, colorful notes, and building blocks, it is difficult for the students to take them seriously. Therefore, it is very important to communicate the methods and the goals to the learners very clearly," says Professor Saule Petroniene from KTU Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, a co-author of the study.
Switching Roles: The Challenge and The Key
Researchers indicate that the implementation of this approach requires a paradigm shift in which both teachers and students need to apply new skills and take on roles that they might not apply before as the learner has become no more a passive listener nor the educator continues to be the sole source of knowledge.
"Both students and teachers face difficulties in accepting their new roles—a teacher is no longer the main provider of knowledge, and a student is not a passive listener, who absorbs the knowledge as a sponge," says Sukacke, who was interviewing the teachers who implemented CBL in their classes.
She mentions that both teachers and learners face a strong feeling of uncertainty regarding what resources are needed and what solution will be implemented. Therefore, consultations are needed during the intermediate stages of challenge-solving, which requires additional time and skills from the facilitating teacher. Still, educators believe that the benefits of active learning methods outweigh the challenges.
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