Most students these days just think they have to go to class, pay attention, write some notes and they will do fine. That may be true for some people but if they were to use a more active learning approach instead of passive, they could do even better. Active learning is a learning approach that gets the student more involved which helps lead to a better understanding and idea of the material being learned (VickyRN, 2009). Passive learning is the common classroom learning approach where you listen to a teacher and read information (VickyRN, 2009). If students were more aware of the benefits of active learning and the difference between active and passive learning, they could achieve higher academic results and may even enjoy it more. Many
The students are forced to work as a team to all complete a common task. It gives students the opportunity to learn from each other as well as teach each other. All students come from different backgrounds so if they are able to each combine their knowledge, it is a great way to learn and work together (University of Sydney, 2012). It also helps develop critical thinking skills as well as co-operative learning skills (University of Sydney, 2012). Another helpful thing about working in groups is that students are able to go more in depth with what they are learning compared to just listening to a teacher talk about it and them barely scratching the surface (University of Sydney, 2012). Working in groups may also make learning more fun and enjoyable for some students. By getting the students more interested in what they are learning, it may get them more motivated to want to do the work which ultimately helped the student learn more and achieve a higher grade (University of Sydney, 2012). Now I know that students cannot always work in groups and that they have to do things themselves sometimes but if teachers would do a group work activity every once in a while, that would be a great way to get students to work more actively. Even though learning actively is the better learning approach, being a passive learner may be important in certain areas of study. I have talked about how passive learners are people that sit in class listening to the instructor and