Active vs. Passive Learning

According to a recent study done by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, students who learned through active learning are more likely to pass in a class than those who learned by listening to a lecture. “There’s no substitute for the interaction and feedback that comes from practice”-Aatish Bhatia

When a student obtains information through active learning, the information is more likely to resonate with him or her than if he or she obtained the information through passive learning.

Active learning promotes higher-order thinking and provokes a higher thought process. Students who are taught through active and engaged learning are 1.5 times more likely to pass a class than students who were in a passive learning environment.

Students who passed and were taught through active and engaged learning are also more likely to score better than students who passed but learned through a passive approach.

These findings correlate with results found in the research done by Dr. Karin James and Dr. Shelley Swain in Indiana University.

The results of their study showed that when individuals are taught through an active approach rather a passive approach the BOLD responses (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) are much higher in an fMRI, which confirms that the neural activation level is much higher and learning actively promotes higher thought process.

The results of both these studies show a direct correlation between active learning and neural activation and better test results.

Implementing an active teaching method in all classrooms would benefit individuals of all ages not only college students. It would have a positive impact on their cognition skills, neural activation, test results, and much more. As mentioned in the article published by Dr. Aatish Bhatia, no one learned how to ride a bike by observing another individual do the activity, rather they had to get up and physically do it themselves for them to learn how to do so and the same applies for any subject an individual would like to learn.

Sources:

https://www.wired.com/2014/05/empzeal-active-learning/

James, K. H., Swain, S. N. (2010). Only generated actions create sensori-motor systems in the developing brain. Developmental Science, 1-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01011.x