• You are here:
• Home
• Video bank
• Introducing active learning
• Talking teaching, training and learning

Skip transcript

Transcript: Talking teaching, training and learning

Chapter 1

Learner:

So we can do a £15 gift voucher.

Voice-over:

Experiential learning engages learners in an authentic first-hand experience that allows them to make discoveries and experiment, construct meaning and develop understanding for themselves.

Elaine Szpytma:

We remember experiences, we learn from experiences. If somebody gave you a textbook and said this is how you learn to drive, you would never be able to do it. I can tell my learners all about the theory of a database and what a database does and how useful it is. But unless they actually experience that for themselves then it's irrelevant.

Sarah Benjamin:

It's quite important actually that they experience it, because when they experience problems they're more likely to remember those problems, and then they're able to write about those problems and talk to you about them because they felt it for themselves. And that becomes more concrete to them. Because even if they don't remember the actual term or the abstract theory, if you remind them of the problems - say "Do you remember when you had that problem?" - they'll go "Oh, yes", and then they'll instantly make that link. So I think that's the solution.

Afiloke Feyibumni:

It deepens their understanding of the subject matter.

Elaine Szpytma:

You learn from carrying out an activity, no matter how small. You then construct your own learning from the experience. You reflect on it. You plan how you might do it differently next time and then you go away and do it and you hopefully improve it. And so we keep moving forward.

Voice-over:

Differentiation is underpinned by a view of learners as individuals. It runs like a thread through all stages of the learning process.

Colin Tymm:

It's an essential part of any teacher's planning to make sure that they've got activities or they've got something within that class that's going to challenge the learner and give them the chance to take something away from that lesson.

Deborah Robinson:

At Chichester College we have something called the Chichester Learning Model, which all staff have bought into, where we encourage the use of group work within a class. And we enable students to work reflectively and to think about their own learning styles and others' learning styles, so that they are not only playing to their own strengths but being aware that other people may not function as they function. And that's been a good way of encouraging group work in classes, because we're playing to different styles. It doesn't help everybody and it doesn't help all staff but most people can see the benefit overall I think.

Chapter 2

Voice-over:

Co-operative learning is a structured form of group learning. It is particularly useful as a framework for team project work. It ensures individual learners understand that their contribution is vital to the team.

Colin Tymm:

The way that the students are now working, particularly on the BTEC and now that they're working in small groups, the use of the peers within that group has given them a far better chance to solve problems and to deal with problems. Rather than working on their own, as they were in the past, they're now working as a small group and a team of students will always come forward with a far better answer than an individual will.

Voice-over:

IT learning can embed literacy, language and numeracy skills.

Elaine Szpytma:

Using active learning has really helped to embed core skills of literacy and numeracy and of course now IT into the curriculum.

Chapter 3

Voice-over:

The term "modelling" describes an approach where the learner works under the guidance of an expert who exposes them to both subject content and underpinning thinking. Debra Robinson from Chichester College explains how experienced colleagues have been able to model active learning techniques for staff development.

Deborah Robinson:

They're very experienced members of staff with lots of experience of using active learning in their classes and they can often model it for other people. We've had situations - we call them "spotlights" here - whereby somebody has done something brilliant and everybody else is allowed to have a look at what they're doing. Sometimes we've come down and joined in a class, sometimes it's been shown as a set piece.

Voice-over:

Learning conversations place the learner in the driving seat, reflecting on their progress and deciding what to do next to further their learning.

Deborah Robinson:

One thing that we're seeing a lot in Chichester is the student voice emerging. Every classroom has a "penny drop poster", which the students devised as a way of checking whether they have understood their own learning. So they've been part of the process here.

We've also been involved in teaching the staff how to involve students. We've trained everybody in the Chichester learning model and we're finding that people are embracing it and adapting it now, which means that it's an embedded concept.

Chapter 4

Voice-over:

Technology offers learners exciting, innovative tools for active learning, to research, to communicate, to collaborate and to create.

Najmiyeh Ford:

A couple of them used their own mobile phones to take pictures - creating different textures on the table, different designs - and incorporating them into their assignment. And using Photoshop to edit.

You learn so much about your students that way as well. And they become more confident because they learn about different skills that they have, and they were not aware of these skills previously. So that's good use of electronic technology, which encourages independent learning in some way.

Sarah Benjamin:

I think one of the things that you need to remember is that with learners, because we're living in such an age where everything is electronic, they are more likely to be engaged with that. I can actually think of an example that I used this week, which was the discussion boards.

The discussion board that we have on our system is based on the intranet and it's where students have an account and they can actually log on. I set a question for them to do with the lesson and they all added their own opinion to that question.

Voice-over:

Assessment for learning is built into all successful learning activities. It involves checking learning and generating feedback that informs subsequent learning.

Afiloke Feyibumni:

The students each report back on what they've learnt in a lesson in the last five minutes. I got everyone to say one new thing they'd learnt in the lesson, which they hadn't known at the time they walked into the room. And it was phenomenal, it was fantastic - you could see them coming up with different ideas of what they'd learnt. Some very minute things, some, you know, very big things, but everyone was able to have an impact from the lesson and to reflect on it and talk about it.

Chapter 5

Voice-over:

By designing learning so that learners use more than one of their senses, we make it richer and more motivating. The learner is more likely to remember what they have learnt after a multi-sensory learning experience.

Afiloke Feyibumni:

It's the type of learning whereby the learners are active in listening to what's going on, seeing visual images of what's happening and being physically involved. Their hands are involved in doing one thing or the other.

Najmiyeh Fod:

It's important to differentiate and cater for different learning needs within each classroom. So we can't just implement one learning style for all and one teaching style for all.

Voice-over:

Relating theory and practice can happen in a number of ways. In active learning, learners form concepts through inductive reasoning: for example working on a real life project that leads them to develop theories and test them out.

Najmiyeh Fod:

The problem has been: how do we relate the difficult concepts to real exercises? And I think the active material provided us with some practical samples of what we could do with our learners and how we could get them engaged in understanding some of the more difficult concepts.

As I understand from the groups that we've been teaching they've had much better, deeper understanding of these concepts than we previously were able to get from our learners.