We’ve all seen the statistics from various research studies that report a person’s attention span in a lecture setting begins to fade within ten to twenty minutes. As educators, how do we keep from losing our students within those first few minutes of a class and focused for the remainder of the class?

We’ve heard the term active learning used to describe the process students should be engaged in while participating in class activities in order to keep them focused. However, do we understand what defines active learning? What types of teaching and learning activities fit into the definition of active learning?

Throughout 2014, professional development sessions will be offered and resources made available that will help you better understand active learning as well as assist in making the incorporation of the active learning approach an achievable goal in your courses.

To kick off 2014, The Year of Active Learning at UTSHC, we’ve created a webpage where we will post resources that provide information related to active learning and examples of activities.  Bookmark and visit our page (academic.uthsc.edu/faculty/2014.php) often as we will continue to add new resources and information to this page.

“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.”

From: Chickering, Arthur and Stephen C. Ehrmann (1996), “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,”  AAHE Bulletin, October, pp.  3-6.