HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Department of Psychology

HDP Training on Active Learning in Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutions in General

and Oda Bultum University in Particular

Presented by
Gemechu Abera Gobena (Associate Professor of Educational Psychology)

Sunday, March 23, 2025

My Brief Presentation Outlines

1. Definition and
Concepts of Active
Learning

5.
Different 2. Description of
Active active learning
Learning method
What is Active
Techniques Learning in
EHLI

4. Benefits of using 3. Major Stages of

active learning in EHLI Active Learning
Training Outcomes
 After completing this training, trainees will be able to:
 Define active learning
 Explain the purpose of active learning
 Identify variety of active learning methods
 Implement different active learning methods in their teaching
 differentiate challenges to apply active learning method
 Appreciate the role of different active learning methods in maximizing students learning
 Activity 1: 10- 30 minutes only
My training activities
 1. What are the concepts and definitions of active learning method for you as HLII?
 2. What are the important environmental factors should be considered in AL in Ethiopian HLIs?
 3. What are the main purposes of AL in EHLI for you?
 4. What are the Major Stages of Active Learning in Ethiopian HLII for you?
 5. Can you identify the roles of both actors (Teachers and Students) in AL in Ethiopian HLIs?
 6. Can you mention at least six strategies ( types, methods, components, techniques ) of AL in
Ethiopian HLIs?
 7. What are the potential barriers to implement AL for you in EHLIs? How about its Solution?
 8. Explain the traditional teaching methods and outline Students and Teachers’ activities in
traditional teaching method?
 9. What makes active learning different from the traditional teaching approach?
Proverbs of AL
1. Education should not be about building more schools
and maintaining a system that dates back to the
Industrial Revolution. We can achieve so much more, at
unmatched scale with software and interactive learning
( Naveen Jain).
2. Flipping our classrooms into active learning spaces
really is important and having these convenient spaces
where people feel comfortable( Megan Smith).
3. Learning is an active process. We learn by doing. Only
knowledge that is used sticks in your mind (Dale
Carnegie).
4. Emotional 'literacy' implies an expanded responsibility
for schools in helping to socialize children. This
daunting task requires two major changes: that teachers
go beyond their traditional mission and that people in
3.2. Definitions and Concepts of Active Learning in HLIs
 Active learning (AL) can be defined as any teaching/instructional approach whereby all
students are fully and meaningfully engaged in the learning process.
 refers to a way of learning whereby the students are given a fair
chance of learning on their own with little guidance from
teachers.
is the process of motivating and encouraging the students assume
self responsibly and develop self assertiveness for their own
learning.
 is a meaningful involvement and participation of the students in
learning tasks or activities by their own initiatives.
 To summarize AL means
 meaningful learning,
 experiential learning,
 engaged learning, These are different terms that have
 self-regulated learning been used to represent AL
 Self directed learning
 Independent learning etc
 According to the cognitive psychologists, meaningful learning is:
Active learning ( learners carries out various cognitive operations)
Constructive ( knowledge is not an entity to be passed interact from
one person to the other) on
Cumulative ( new learning builds on individual's prior knowledge).
Self regulated ( the learners decide what to do next) and
 Therefore, it requires a student-centred learning approach with a shift in emphasis
from passive to active learning.
 A change in behavior underpinned by a change in thinking and encouraging students to
take responsibility for their own learning.
 The intention of active learning methods is to develop both
lower and higher order levels of knowledge, such as
comprehension, application, critical thinking, analytical skills
and evaluation.
 Pollard (2008, p288) maintains, “active learning is linked
to further factors such as motivation, stimulus, and
concentration”.
 In AL, we are able to draw two concepts.
 First Concepts of AL clearly indicates that learners should use
opportunities to decide about aspects of the learning process in
their academic life.
 For instance, they must
 make their own time management,
 plan learning goals and activities they like,
 check their progress,
 take care of learning and understanding on their own, and
 reflect on errors and successes of their learning .
 AL, in this sense, has to do with the preparation, execution,
 Second, Concepts of AL focuses on the extent to which the
learners are challenged to use their mental abilities while
learning.
 AL is not so much determined the number and quality of
decisions about learning that can be counted but how much
activities are asked from the learner.
 Are students figuring out things on their own?
 Are they working without teacher supervision?
 Are they working together in groups?
 Are they thinking while learning?
Important Environmental Factors of AL
Generally, in AL the following six important environments should
be considered.
1.Communication among student
 discussion, argumentation, inquire teaching, barnstorming
2.Information transmission
 reading, lecture, new media
3. Problem solving
 a step by step approach to reaching at a solution, apprenticeship,
project
4.Training

 1.Communic
ation among
student

6.Recitati
2.Information
on as well
Six transmission
as testing
Important
Environm
ental
Factors of
5.Evaluate
AL 3.
Problem
performance solving

4.Training
3.3. The major stages of ALM
Generally, there are five stages of ALM
A. Engagement
 teachers provide new materials, students initial experience, and subsequent close
encounters
B. Exploration
 taking time to initialize new materials by students
C. Presentation
 asking students to put to public when they have done and learned
D. Transformation
 creating learning environment, teachers ask students to do activities, apply ALM
E. Reflection
 students review, appraise and check on the processes and products of their learning
 1.
Engagemen
t

5. Reflection 2. Exploration

The Five Major

Stages of ALM

4. 3.
Transformatio Presentati
n on
3.4. Benefits of using active learning Methods in Ethiopian HLIs
 Bonwell and Eison (1991) state that some merits of active learning
are:
 Students are involved in more than listening,
 Less emphasis is placed on transmitting information,
 Greater emphasis on developing students' skills,
 Students are involved in higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, creation),
 Students are engaged in activities (e.g., reading, discussing, writing), and
 Greater emphasis is placed on students' exploration of their own attitudes and value
Generally, the basic rationale for active learning is that:
 “What I hear, I forget”
 “What I see, I remember”
 The human brain requires activity:
 receives information,
 links it with past experiences,
 tests,
 explains, and
 retains [information processing model]
1. To meet different learning styles:
 visual,
 auditory,
 kinesthetic [60% of students have practical orientates;
2. To meet social nature of learning:
 the need to feel safe with other people, challenging problems in
groups.
In summary, as opposed to the traditional teacher dominated
methods of teaching, active learning has the following major
advantages.
Allows students apply their knowledge
Permits students develop better retention
Encourages students use their senses properly
Maintains the students use their senses properly
Develops confidence, a sense of independence self-reliance and autonomy in students
Develops higher order thinking (problem-solving skills, interpretation and analysis, debating and
 Allow the students to assume self-responsibly and a sense of accountably as well as take self-natives.
Encourages learning by dong, discovery learning, creative thinking, skill development, transfer of
skills and knowledge.
In the process of instruction, it shifts the learners from passive recent of knowledge to active
processor of information.
Allows the teacher use variety of inputs and resources as well as real student’s experiences as directly
as possible.
Makes the teachers feel flexible and adaptable in setting variety of activities/tasks for the students.
Help the teachers develop an adaptable curriculum, flexible lesson plans, course contents, and
responsive teaching styles.
Enhances good interaction among the students and good rapport between the teachers and the
students.
Transforms simple learning to a more advanced and complex learning.
 3. The structure of AL
AL procedures has the following structure
A. Teachers Role
Arranging the physical environment
 arrange the seat in different styles
Getting student to be active from the start
by team building, making on the spot assessment, establishing immediate learning
involvement strategies)
Helping students to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes
by making lecture or teacher led instruction, more active, stimulating classroom
discussion, encouraging collaborative learning, organized peer teaching.
 Avoid teacher/ lecture/ text book dominated lessons
Initiates hot debate among the groups and the whole class
B. Students Role
Establish good attitudes towards group work and AL method of
teaching.
Takes self responsibly for his/her own learning.
Respect for ground rules, other students and teacher’s
instruction
Contribute to the group success
Take active participation in the lass discussion and group work.
Keep punctuality and discipline.
Play a different role in the group
C. Range of AL Techniques ( Methods)
Case studies
Active listening
Competitions
Balloon game
Comprehension activities
Brainstorming
Cooperative learning
Buzz group
Creative writing
Drama
Evaluation of lesson
Crossover groups

Experiment Debate

Questioning(quiz, ranking tasks, role play, self assessment SGD)

 Drawing pictures, maps, graphs
Field work
Hot seating
Flashcards
Ice breaker
Games
Independent work
Gapped lecture
Interviews
Goldfish bowl
ICT use
Investigation
Jigsaw
Mastery learning
Groups making models and resources
Matching exercises
Mind map
Microteaching Newspaper or radio reporting
Pair discussion Picture analysis
Peer assessment Pyramiding
Problem solving
Potential Barriers of the Implementation ALM include
Large class size
Limited resources
Inadequate awareness of teachers and students on ALM
Negative influence of the deep-rooted teachers (Teacher dominated method of teaching)
Teachers and students negative attitude towards AL
Resistance to new changes
Time pressure
Reluctance and lack of concern on the part of nstructors
Incompatibility of the old and the new status quo.
Professional and personal inadequacy
 Possible Solutions of the Barriers of the Implementation of AL
To properly implement AL
a. Selecting techniques more relevant to large classes.
b. Arranging physical classroom settings.
c. Upgrading instructors’ professional competence.
d. Changing the attitude of the learners.
e. Raising the awareness and understanding of the learners
f. Establishing reasonable expectations of the students
g. Forming groups with mixed
 Ability, Sex, Age, Social background, and Interest of the learners
h. Establishing specific classroom rules.
i. Budgeting the teaching time properly.
j. Creating good teaching and learning environment
Activity 2 ( Page 31)
 Dear trainee, hereunder you are presented with different cases of active
learning methods that can be applied in a classroom.
 Read them carefully and match with the appropriate methods of
active learning.
3.5. Description of AL
1. Decision Line
 Is a controversial statement that the students are asked to stand
on a continuous line between ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly
disagree’.
 Students are asked to defend where they are standing.
2. Gapped Lecture
 It may be used periodically to break up a lecture and to enable
you to
 check the students are following the lecture.
 Use a combination of open
 and closed questions.

3. Crossover Group
 It is a method of teaching where you start with the individual and
move to the whole group.
 Individuals complete a task first and then move into pairs.
 The pairs discuss the work they have just done and make
improvements and corrections.
 Then two pairs join to form groups of 4.
 The groups compare the work they have done.
 Finally, feedback can be given to the whole group.
 If you have a large class, only choose two or three groups to give feedback.
 Alternatively you can ask for each group to give a different point.
4. Crossover Group
 the class is sub-divided into two or more
smaller groups with transfers of some
students between groups at appropriate times.
 From their sharing, more discussion is developed.
 After 5 minutes, they will cross-over or “move”
to another group.
 This will ensure that the information you want the
students to learn, travels through the entire class.
 This avoids the need for a lot of feedback.
5. Buzz Group
 is a cooperative learning technique consisting in the formation of
small discussion groups with the objective of developing a specific
task (idea generation, problem solving and so on) or facilitating
that a group of learners reach a consensus on their ideas about a
topic in a specific period of time.
 help students develop collaborative and group problem solving
skills and can provide students with opportunities to integrate
material, as well as formulate applications and generalizations or
principles.
 Learners can get responses to their ideas from others and can
learn a lot from other students.
6. Debate
 A debate is a formal public discussion on a particular topic or
topics in which opposing arguments are presented.
 The debate could be between two or more individuals, for
example candidates for president, or between advocates and
opponents of a proposed law,.
Four types of debate
 Parliamentary Debate.
 Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
 Cross Examination Debate.
 Academic Debate.
7. Visual Aids
 any object used in the educational environment to support learning and to make life easier for
the teacher
 they support the professional practice of teaching.
 Common examples include timers, flip charts, world globes and flashcards.
 are chosen depending on their purpose, for example, to summarize information
8. Demonstrations
 Demonstration involves showing by reason or proof,
explaining or making clear by use of examples or experiments.
 Put more simply, demonstration means 'to clearly show'.
 is a teacher- centred method as the teacher demonstrates
the pictures/ charts /models /experiments and explains the
principles, concepts involved in these demonstrated materials or
processes.
 Its objectives is to
 help the students in having a deeper understanding of the
subject.
 keep students engaged and active throughout the teaching-