Engaged Learning is Active Learning

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

An important part of engaged learning is ensuring that the learning experience is active. We know that young people tend to be wiggly and need to be physically active and that they learn best when they are allowed to learn by “doing”. We also know that they are more difficult to manage when we allow them to be who they are, and hands-on projects are messier and pose greater challenges in planning and implementing activities. It is important that we accept the need for young people to be active learners and take on the challenge of designing activities that meet these needs. 

What does new brain science tell us about active learning?

“As the neuroimaging evidence has shown, the more a student is engaged in a learning activity, especially one with multiple sensory modalities, the more parts of his/her brain are actively stimulated. When this occurs in a positive emotional setting, without stress and anxiety, the result is greater long-term, relational, and retrievable learning.” – Dr. Judy Willis, Neurologist and Classroom Teacher

What ACTIVE learning looks like:

• Young people are involved in activities that are hands-on and project-based 
• Young people are involved in activities that result in a finished project
• Young people participate in activities that allow them to be fully physically active to their ability
• When young people’s curiosity is peaked within an activity, they are able to express and explore this 
• Young people are involved in activities that require and encourage them to think critically (asking open ended questions, categorizing and classifying, working in groups, making decisions, and finding patterns)
• Young people are allowed to explore things in ways that are self-directed
• Young people appear excited about what they are doing or learning 

Four things program leaders can do to begin promoting active learning:   

1. Explore and assess: It is important that you take the time with your staff to explore and assess your alignment with this first learning principle. 

2. Project-based learning: If your program is lacking the use of this teaching and learning method, offer a training in project-based learning for your staff. Try adding one club that features project-based learning. The Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center in San Francisco, CA features a large number of project-based clubs for their middle school youth. They published a great guide entitled The Best of Both Worlds: Aligning Afterschool Programs with Youth Development Principles and Academic Standards. Click here to purchase. 

3. Promoting positive behavior: When young people are physically active and engaged in hands-on activities, they become excited. It is important that program staff are skilled in behavior management, which is often the result of good training. You can contact Temescal Associates if you wish help in offering a training in promoting positive behavior.  

4. Activity planning: Active learning requires that activities are carefully planned and the right materials are available to ensure the activity is a success. It can be very useful to require that program staff develop clear lesson plans that articulate the sequence of the activity and activity directions and list the needed materials. This takes time and it is important that the organization provides staff with training and additional time to develop these plans.

Below is a good program example of active learning:

Techbridge; Oakland, San Lorenzo, Fremont, and Concord School Districts; (Grades 6 – 8) Techbridge offers hands-on summer academies that inspire middle school youth (particularly girls and those underrepresented in STEM) a chance to explore science, technology, and engineering. Curriculum is developed with girls in mind, and includes projects like remotely operated vehicles where girls design and construct their own remotely operated boats and test them out on water; Electrical Engineering, where girls build solar night lights and learn to solder; Cleantech, where girls build solar cells and learn about renewable energy; and AppInventor, where students use creativity and technology to create their own Android app. In addition to the learning being very active, the youth also expand their horizons as staff provide career exploration to help students make the connection between STEM projects and careers. Role models and field trips are key to their success.

Principles of Engaged Learning

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

"Engaged Learning" is a phrase that we have been hearing a lot about. It is often cited by educational researchers and leaders of school reform as a critical feature needed to retain students. More recently, we've heard the term used when describing quality afterschool and summer programs. It is a key element in quality expanded learning programs as cited on the C.S. Mott Expanded Learning & Afterschool website, and the expanded learning model promoted by the Afterschool Alliance. 

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer (LIAS) project, based in California, worked to bring clear definition to "engaged learning" by detailing five critical features of afterschool learning environments. The five LIAS learning principles state that learning must be:

• Active
• Collaborative
• Meaningful
• Support Mastery
• Expand the Horizons of Participants

The LIAS principles have been readily embraced by the California Department of Education (CDE) as key to understanding quality programming and they stand at the core of state program quality standards recommendations that are currently being considered by the CDE. They have also been cited by important field reports and tools on STEM programming and other field topics. 

We will use this blog space to explore these five critical learning principles. We will also provide videos and other resources to help program leaders better understand these principles and how to integrate them into the design and implementation of afterschool and summer programs. The video below features  comments by Tom Torlakson, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the California Department of Education; Deborah Vandell, Professor of Education and Psychology and Dean of the School of Education at UC Irvine; Andi Fletcher, Afterschool and Educational Consultant for the Center for Collaborative Solutions; Carol Tang, Director of The Coalition for Science After School; Jennifer Peck, Executive Director of Partnership for Children and Youth; Pedro Noguera, Professor of Education at NYU; Paul Heckman, Associate Dean and Professor at UC Davis; Steve Amick, Director of School District Partnerships at THINK Together; and many more!

Below are some quotes from educational and afterschool leaders regarding the five LIAS learning principles.

Bernie Trilling

“The five Learning in Afterschool & Summer principles are perfectly aligned with a 21st century learning approach – active, meaningful, collaborative learning projects that provide opportunities to expand one’s horizons and master important knowledge and skills – this is the heart of 21st century learning.” 

- Bernie Trilling, Global Director, Oracle Education Foundation, Co-Author, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times

Lucy Friedman

“The LIAS principles make concrete the kind of learning that can and should happen beyond traditional school hours: active, collaborative learning that prepares kids for careers we can’t even imagine.”  

- Lucy Friedman, Founding President, The After School Corporation

Pedro Noguera

“I use the LIAS principles because I felt they captured many of the core elements that a successful afterschool program should have.  Actually, those principles should be reflected in classrooms during the regular school day as well.  We spend so much time focused on "achievement" and so little time focused on how to motivate students to learn. The principles advocated by Learning in Afterschool & Summer strike the right balance and make sense. The principles contained in Learning in Afterschool promote such an approach, and if applied with fidelity, could lead to real improvements in educational outcomes for kids.” 

- Pedro Noguera, Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, Department of Education, New York University 

Tony Smith

“I think the Learning in Afterschool & Summer guiding principles are essential. I think it is so important to have a set of core ideas that you can work around. The guiding principles and the way they’ve been compiled by the LIAS project are really important. Obviously, the work of being in relationships with people, working deeply on stuff – stuff that you care about - that matters. The thing that is fundamentally important to me is expanding horizons - the opportunity for young people to see possible futures. Sometimes young people don’t have folks around them to help them understand what’s possible for them.” 

- Tony Smith, former Superintendent, Oakland Unified School District