Using Active Learning for Motivated Learning

As educators, one of our biggest challenges is inspiring students to eagerly engage and remain actively involved in learning. Neuroscience research, applied to classroom strategies, supports active learning strategies to empower, engage, and stimulate successful learning when students are at the control centres of their learning.

We’ve learned how we can promote the brain’s available power tool of neuroplasticity, through active learning interventions, to strengthen students’ construction of their own understanding as their brain extends beyond rote memory to a wide network of interconnected knowledge banks that can be applied in school and transferred to new applications long after the school years.

Active learning strategies will be described as ready to use classroom tools, including prediction with feedback, multisensory learning opportunities, project-based learning, personally relevant performance tasks, and the incorporation of technology into learning. These tools can serve as powerful active learning interventions that promote each learner’s role in their learning experiences with their increased buy-in interest and sustained motivated effort as they extend their learning autonomy by thinking deeply and critically.