DIFFERENT LEARNING METHODS

Active learning

Active learning is a model of instruction that focuses the responsibility of learning on learners, not on teacher-led instruction, a model also termed student-centered. It is based on the premise that in order to learn, students must do more than just listen: they must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. It relates to three learning domains referred to as knowledge, skills and attitudes, whereby students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Active learning engages students in two aspects – doing things and thinking about the things they are doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991). (See Bloom’s taxonomy).

Cooperative education

 is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a “co-op”, provides academic credit for structured job experience. Cooperative education is taking on new importance in helping young people to make the school-to-work transition. Cooperative learning falls under the umbrella of work-integrated learning (alongside internships, service learning and clinical placements) but is distinct as it alternates a school term with a work term in a structured manner, involves a partnership between the academic institution and the employer, and generally is both paid and intended to advance the education of the student.

Passive learning

Passive learning, a key feature of direct instruction, has at its core the dissemination of nearly all information and knowledge from a single source, the teacher with a textbook providing lessons in lecture-style format. This model has also become known as the “sage on the stage”. A high degree of learning was by rote memorization. When public education began to proliferate in Europe and North America from the early 19th century, a direct-instruction model became the standard and has continued into the 21st century. Education at the time was designed to provide workers for the emerging factory-based, industrial societies, and this educational model and organization of schools became known as the “factory model school”, with curriculum, teaching style, and assessment heavily standardized and centered around the needs and efficiencies of classroom and teacher management.

Practice-based professional learning

is understood in contrast to ‘classroom-‘ or ‘theory-based’ learning. It is kindred to terms such as ‘work-based learning’, ‘workplace’ or ‘work-centred’ learning. Distinctive, though, are a concern for professional learning, and the preference for ‘practice’ rather than ‘work’. While it does not disdain propositional knowledge and what is sometimes called ‘theory’, its prime interest is in the formation of self-renewing and effective professional practices—a distinct theoretical position in its own right.

Differentiated learning

Differentiated learning has developed from an awareness of the effectiveness of different learning styles which have emerged from late 20th/early 21st century neurological research and studies of the different learning styles. As the impacts of the factory model school’s design on learning became more apparent, together with the emerging need for different skills in the late 20th century, so too did the need for different educational styles and different configurations of the physical learning environments. Direct instruction is now expanding to include students conducting independent or guided research with multiple sources of information, greater in-class discussion, group collaboration, experiential (hands-on, project-based, etc.), and other forms of active learning. Direct instruction’s “sage on the stage” role for teachers approach is being augmented or replaced by a “guide by the side” approach.

Progressive education

Progressive education is a pedagogical movement using many tenets of active learning that began in the late 19th century and has continued in various forms to the present. The term progressive was engaged to distinguish this education from the traditional Euro-American curricula of the 19th century, which was rooted in classical preparation for the university and strongly differentiated by social class. Progressive education is rooted in present experience. Many progressive education programs include qualities such as learning by doing (hands-on projects, experiential learning, integrated curriculum, integration of entrepreneurship, problem solving, critical thinking, group work, social skills development, goals of understanding and action instead of rote knowledge, collaborative and cooperative learning projects, education for social responsibility and democracy, personalized education, integration of community service, subject content selection based on what future skills will be needed, de-emphasis on textbooks, lifelong learning, and assessment by evaluation of students’ projects and productions.

Home learning

is the education of children inside the home. Home education is usually conducted by a parent or tutor. Many families that start out with a formal school structure at home often switch to less formal ways of imparting education outside of school. “Homeschooling” is the term commonly used in North America, whereas “home education” is more commonly used in the United Kingdom,^[3] elsewhere in Europe, and in many Commonwealth countries.

Phenomenon-based learning

is a multidisciplinary, constructivist form of learning or pedagogy where students study a topic or concept in a holistic approach instead of in a subject-based approach. PhBL includes both topical learning (also known as topic-based learning or instruction), where the phenomenon studied is a specific topic, even, or fact, and thematic learning (also known as theme-based learning or instruction), where the phenomenon studied is a concept or idea. PhBL emerged as a response to the idea that traditional, subject-based learning is outdated and removed from the real-world and does not offer the optimum approach to development of 21st century skills. It has been used in a wide variety of higher educational institutions and more recently in grade schools.

Constructivist education

Constructivist education is a movement includes active learning, discovery learning, and knowledge building, and all versions promote a student’s free exploration within a given framework or structure. The teacher acts as a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working answering open-ended questions and solving real-world problems. Montessori education is an example of a constructivist learning approach.

Several of the key trends in educational models throughout the 20th and early 21st century include progressive education, constructivist education, and 21st century skills-based education. These can be provided in comprehensive or specialized schools in a variety of organizational models, including departmental, integrative, project-based, academy, small learning communities, and school-within-a-school. Each of these can also be paired, at least in part, with design-based, virtual school, flipped classroom, and blended learning models.