Shift in the role of the teacher and pupil in creating an active classroom environment

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Possible methods of active teaching and learning

This technique is great for generating discussion through group interaction when there is no correct or obvious answer. It encourages consideration and in-depth thinking.

Place key words, statements or pictures on nine cards. The learners then place them in order of importance, their opinion of what is the most important on the top, followed by a row of two less important below, then a row of three, then another row of two and finally the least important is placed at the bottom, creating a diamond shape. This can then be recreated on the interactive white board using drag and drop, to help confirm / reinforce results.

Similar to the diamond but this time invite learners to test relative merits of different explanations or causes of …. By ranking in a pyramid (ten points with a base of four blank

boxes up to tip of pyramid and most important point) Encourages thinking about the issues and helps to form opinions that are defended by evidence. This is ideal when linked to key relevant essay questions or any situation where something is a matter of opinion and debate.

Breakdown a project/report/essay/display into individual parts and compile into finished product. Each person writes or produces a part of the whole but all shares each others work.

Ideally place your learners into groups of three and give each group the same short and timed task. When the time is up, send two envoys from each group to a different table to identify what answers these groups have come up with, and then report findings to their original group. The group member that didn’t move now feeds back results to the whole group. This will ideally work with a group of 12 or 24 learners (4

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Invite class to debate a key topic and to arrive at a conclusion. Welcome views for and against and encourage tolerance and acceptance of different points of view. Help students over time to receive correction without upset and to reach deeper insight into a topic and to develop personal confidence.

Learners work as a whole class to discuss a controversial topic. This involves:

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  nominating a chair person to direct the discussion
  
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  forming a circle to allow eye contact
  

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  providing the chair person with a set of questions (prepared by the educator or class)
  
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  the chair person nominating class members to answer questions
  
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  learners volunteer answers by raising their hands
  
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  the chair person having a learning target to achieve
  
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  the chair person evaluating own performance using set criteria
  

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  the group evaluating the chair person's performance and their own performance using set criteria