In our experience: active learning is effective learning

A transition project at Allan's Primary School in Stirling highlighted the many benefits of active learning.

Active learning is not a gimmick. “I think at the beginning people thought that active learning was something different and new,” says Carolann Morrow, depute headteacher at Allan’s Primary School in Stirling. “Yet in many ways it’s just very good teaching.”

To Carolann and the teachers at Allan’s, active learning is something of an instinct. As they point out, good teachers have for many years endeavoured to get children engaged in their own purposeful learning, encouraged creativity and taken a problem-solving approach to classroom activities. Innovative as it is, active learning has these long-standing principles at its heart.

“In previous years, much of the focus of education has been worksheets and textbooks, whereas we’re now looking at how we can teach knowledge, content and skills and ensure understanding actively,” explains Carolann. Active learning encourages pupils to explore, ask questions, solve problems and be creative. It also involves them in planning and reviewing their own learning. In that way, it’s active in many senses. Not only is it physically active but it’s also proactive and cognitively active. This is not about children constantly being on their feet!”

The interactive nature of ICT means it too has a key role to play in active learning. Tools such as interactive whiteboards and educational games give pupils considerable control over what and how they learn, and the children often show the teachers what to do. “Talk about effective contributors?” laughs Carolann. “You can’t get much more effective than showing us how it’s done!”

Indeed, Allan’s has seen first-hand how active learning marries up to the principles of Curriculum for Excellence. “The challenge and enjoyment pupils felt was plain to see,” says Carolann. “During our initial pilot, we took a moment to stand back and look around the areas, and the pupils’ engagement was absolutely apparent.
 
“We have also made a concerted effort to start learning from where children are. Instead of teaching the whole class to write the letter ‘s’ we find out whether they already know it. In one case, we had a P1 girl who already knew how to read. Without identifying children’s prior knowledge and taking them forward from where they are when they enter P1, how effectively would that girl have progressed?”

In this way, active learning fully embraces the focus on personalised learning and relevance that is at the heart of Curriculum for Excellence. “We’re showing the pupils how all their learning ties together and ensuring activities are always relevant to their lives or needs. It’s fantastic to see pupils’ confidence growing. We had one pupil who was so shy when he came to us from nursery, and a few months later you would hardly believe it was the same little boy. It was so heartening to see his development.”

Continuity

Ensuring a successful transition from nursery to P1 was the initial focus for staff as they became involved in their local authority’s Continuity and Progression action research project in August 2007. The infant department had been through a prolonged period of change and transition, so when the team finally came together they decided to harness this fresh energy to try something ‘new’. When Nicola McCorkindale, previously a staff tutor for active learning in South Ayrshire, joined the team last year, it seemed like an ideal opportunity.

The infant department embraced active learning as a key element of their work, as they recognised how this would support continuity of learning as children moved from nursery into P1. The adults’ role is vitally important and is a careful balance between teacher-initiated and child-initiated activities. Teachers plan
for children’s learning and provide activities and experiences to support this, using skilled intervention to take it forward.

“In nursery, children are used to being independent and working in collaboration with others, then in P1 they can sometimes be expected to sit in a chair and conform to a structured learning plan,” says Carolann. “The change can be a difficult one to get to grips with. We wanted to make it a seamless transition so we set up our infant area to include elements of a nursery environment.”

“We removed much of the furniture from the room and separated the space into different areas,” explains Nicola. “We have areas for arts and crafts, maths, imaginative play, puzzles, listening, writing and more.”

With so many different activities available, the classroom caters for a variety of different learning styles. For example, instead of copying letters in their workbook, pupils could mould it out of Play-Doh or draw it in
the sandpit. As well as appealing to visual learners, it also means pupils who do not yet have the dexterity to hold a pencil can still take part in the learning activity.

“At first there was a sense of trepidation about the new environment – could pupils really be learning if they are playing instead of sitting at their desks?” says Carolann. “However, we put the stimulus in place for a reason, so we’re still in control. We know what we want that pupil to learn from an activity and we put skilled
interventions in place to support that.”

For example, when Nicola saw pupils working together to make a fan, she turned that activity into a learning opportunity through skilled intervention. She asked pupils how they would help their classmates to make the fan for themselves. They then wrote out instructions, developing their written and team working skills.

“The children choose from a range of activites for the day, allowing them to be leaders of their own learning,” says Nicola. “We then help them to talk in terms of ‘what I’m learning’ rather than just ‘what I’m doing’. This allows children to peer- and self-assess, to interact and to undertake new challenges. It’s incredibly motivational.”

Fresh thinking

The school received “phenomenal support” from their local authority, including opportunities for professional dialogue, networking with colleagues and focused staff development. Active learning does not necessarily require an endless supply of resources – but teamwork, commitment and imagination were evident in the work of the Allan’s Infant staff. “You just take it one step at a time,” says Carolann. “The children often create their own activities from the stimuli you provide them. It just requires you to think outside of the box, to look at an activity and ask ‘how can we do this differently to allow children to be more active?’”

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