Inviting Students to Be Active Learners

Last week I read an interesting article about learner engagement. The author drew a strong distinction between just "showing up" and truly "active" learning. I have to admit this article like any other on the topic struck a cord with me.

(Allow me a moment on my soapbox...) All too often we mistake simply "showing up and going through the motions" as real engagement. It reminded me of an article I wrote about how to create active learning. You can check it out here: Inviting Students to the Active Learning Process. I wrote the article to agricultural educators (I must admit... I am one!), but I think the underlying principles "stick" in any classroom. If you're a skimmer, like me, then you may want to skip the intro (nice academic background stuff...) and head on over to the third column on the first page. Start reading after the sub-heading there and I think you'll find the most useful information on pages 2 and 3. Enjoy!

Professional Development Tip for 12.3.08