Deep vs. Surface Learning highlights a divergence of opinion around what it means to know something. Deep Learning is associated with intrinsically motivated forms of engagement, characterized by making meaningful connections between new and previous understandings. Surface Learning tends to be associated with extrinsic motivations and is focused on the memorization and recall of information for formulaic responses.
Learn More...Embeddedness Discourses comprise perspectives on learning that refuse separations of self from other and individual from collective. Perceived boundaries among persons and peoples are understood as heuristic conveniences, as collective phenomena are recognized to unfold from and to be enfolded in individual phenomena. Phrased differently, collective forms are understood as learning bodies.
Learn More...Inquiry-Based Learning was designed to interrupt assumptions of context-free knowledge, passive learning, and smooth paths to understanding. It focuses on pursuing authentic interests, posing researchable questions, and participating in knowledge production. Several types of Inquiry-Based Learning have been described, varying on matters of teacher role, learner autonomy, and flexibility of focus.
Learn More...Embodiment Discourses comprise perspectives on learning that refuse a separation of mental and physical. Mental and physical are understood as integrated and inseparable aspects of the body. Phrased differently, the body is not seen as something that a learner learns through, but as the learner. Correspondingly, behaviors are not seen as goals or indications of learning, but as integral elements of learning.
Learn More...Experiential Learning is, in essence, formalized teaching advice based on the ancient realization that humans learn by doing. Focusing on the individual, it recommends firsthand experiences that should occur in real-world environments, affording the learner concrete experience, opportunity to reflect on that experience, opportunity to develop abstract concepts based on that reflection, and opportunities to experiment to continue the cycle of learning.
Learn More...Coherence Discourses regard distinctions and descriptions as useful devices to make sense of the complex dynamics of learning, but they caution that such devices are mere heuristic conveniences. Coherence Discourses suggest that truths do not exist independently or outside of a system – which is a commentary on humans’ understanding of reality, not a commentary on reality. Most Coherence Discourses employ biological and ecological metaphors, with dynamics framed in evolutionary terms.
Learn More...Machine Learning encompasses all efforts and strategies to structure and program machines to improve their performances on specific tasks. In these applications, “learning” is usually defined in operational rather than cognitive terms – that is, in terms of measurable improvements in performance that are due to changes in the machine’s structure, programs, or data. Many strategies are under development, employing different computer architectures and a range of logics.
Learn More...Action Learning is a team-based approach to solving real-life problems, intended for businesses, non-profits, and other organizations. Key components of Action Learning are becoming aware of lack of relevant knowledge and, when the problem at hand is solved, reflecting on the process and results. Most forms of Action Learning include a coach, although the team is encouraged to be self-managing.
Learn More...Activity Theory simultaneously considers the individual’s cognition and the social reality by focusing on “activity systems” – that is, taking into account the knower’s history, motivations, mediating artefacts (language, tools, etc.), community, situation, and culture. More broadly, it looks at systems comprising multiple actors, such as teams and organizations, with particular given attention to rules and divisions of labor.
Learn More...Focus
Socially based activities that support engaged, impactful learning
Principal Metaphors
- Knowledge is … scope of possible actions and interpretations
- Knowing is … coherently interpreting; appropriate acting
- Learner is … an actor (individual)
- Learning is … construing, connecting, interpreting, weaving
- Teaching is … occasioning, prompting, triggering, listening
Originated
1980s
Synopsis
At its root, Active Learning is a critique of and response to Passive Learning (see below). Active Learning thus encompasses a spectrum of learning formats in which students are active, ranging from simply experiencing what is being learned (e.g., riding a bike) to more formally structured approaches such Inquiry-Based Learning. Importantly, Active Learning is not a formal framework, but advice for learner engagement that is rooted in Coherence Discourses, especially Embodiment Discourses and Embeddedness Discourses. (Note: Active Learning should not be confused with Action Learning or Activity Theory.) Associated discourses include:
- Adventure-Based Learning – rooted in Active Learning, Adventure-Based Learning is defined more by the journey than by the destination. Typically developed around team challenges, it is more focused on social and emotional growth than on pre-specified learning goals.
- Passive Learning (Receptive Learning) – a disparaging term, intended as criticism of delivery-oriented teaching methods that position the learner as a passive recipient of external knowledge
- Generative Learning (Marvin Whittrock, 1970s) – a version of Active Learning that emphasizes mental processing, oriented by the conviction that having agency in the learning process amplifies the development of meaning and understanding
- Deep Active Learning – a mash-up of Deep vs. Surface Learning and Active Learning, thus emphasizing learner agency, active engagement, conceptual understanding, and intrinsic motivation. (Note: There’s also a Deep Active Learning associated with Machine Learning.)
Commentary
Active Learning is better described as a series of considerations than as formal advice. The discourse prompts educators to attend to meaningfulness of tasks, demands for critical reflection, opportunities for authentic participation, requirements for interpersonal activity, and so on – in brief, the range of elements and qualities that engaged agents seek when selecting their own activities. Active Learning has thus been criticized as being little different from Experiential Learning and other commonsensical programs. Indeed, apart from a tendency to pay more attention to social and cultural elements of the learning setting, these clusters of theories appear at first glance to be more alike than different.
Authors and/or Prominent Influences
Jean Piaget
John Dewey
Status as a Theory of Learning
Active Learning is not a theory of learning.
Status as a Theory of Teaching
Active Learning is concerned with structuring experiences to influence learning – and, as such, is properly construed as a theory of teaching.
Status as a Scientific Theory
Active Learning is founded on scientific theories of learning, but itself does not meet our requirements of a scientific theory.
Subdiscourses:
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Adventure-Based Learning
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Deep Active Learning
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Generative Learning
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Passive Learning (Receptive Learning)
Map Location
Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2021). “Active Learning” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.
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