Active Learning Strategies in Hands-On Science Education

Introduction: Active Learning in Secondary Social Studies

This paper addresses how active learning strategies might be applied effectively within the framework of Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) for secondary-level social studies. Conversations with teachers during the researcher's observations, internship, and student teaching revealed that, upon reaching the secondary level, the majority of social studies classes are taught in a lecture-style format with occasional use of PowerPoint presentations or projects — a pattern attributed to the constraints of the SOLs. By contrast, elementary-level social studies are taught through storytelling methods and hands-on projects, which tends to make the subject more engaging to students.

Research findings indicate that optimal learning involves more than students merely sitting and listening to lectures. Despite this being widely acknowledged, Chickering and Gamson (1987) note that 89% of all U.S. professors report that passive learning is the dominant model of instruction applied by physical scientists and mathematicians (Chickering and Gamson, 1991). Chickering and Gamson (1987) argue that learning is not "a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves."

According to Diane Starke (2009) in the work entitled "Professional Development Module on Active Learning," research has demonstrated that "students learn more if they are actively engaged with the material they are studying." Starke defines active learning as "in short, anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. This includes everything from listening practices which help students to absorb what they hear, to short writing exercises in which students react to lecture material, to complex group exercises in which students apply course material to 'real life' situations and/or to new problems" — citing Paulson and Faust of California State University, Los Angeles.

Terms and Definitions

Wilbert J. McKeachie (1998), in Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers, states that typical classroom learning — what is known as "passive" learning — involves "listening to the instructor, looking at the occasional overhead or slide, and reading the textbook." McKeachie notes that research findings have indicated that passive learning "generally leads to a limited retention of knowledge by students." McKeachie's well-known "Cone of Learning" illustrates how individuals retain information at different rates depending on the mode of engagement.

Literature Review: Research on Active and Cooperative Learning

Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991), in Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom, define cooperative learning as "the instructional use of small groups so that students can work together to maximize their own and each other's learning." They identify five primary components required for effective cooperative learning:

Active Learning — Students solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class (Morgan et al., 2001).

Cooperative Learning — Students work in teams on problems and projects under conditions that ensure both positive interdependence and individual accountability (Morgan et al., 2001).

Schweitzer and Brown (n.d.), in "Interactive Visualization for the Active Learning Classroom," argue that engaging students in the learning process "has been shown to be an effective means for education" and that active learning "is one technique that incorporates interactive classroom activities to reinforce concepts and involve the students." They further note that "active learning techniques are applicable to all academic disciplines... [and] involves more than simply well-structured formal presentations in the classroom." Active learning encompasses a broad range of techniques, which they categorize as: