Active Learning Strategies
1. Reciprocal questioning
Use reciprocal questioning to encourage an open dialogue in which students take on the role of the teacher and create their own questions about a topic, reading section, or lesson.
Comprehension Question Stems | Connector Question Stems |
Describe x in your own words. What does y mean? Why is z important? How could x be used to y? | Explain how x and why z. In what ways are x and y similar? In what ways are x and y different? How does x tie in with that we learned before? |
- Preparing for tests or exams
- Introducing a new topic or section of course content
- Discussing reading or writing materials in greater detail
2. Three step interviews
A cooperative learning strategy, the three step interview encourages students to develop active listening skills by quizzing one another, sharing their thoughts, and taking notes.

- Helping students learn and apply different questioning strategies
- Strengthening students’ connection with course material in a creative and engaging way
- Producing a sense of accountability, with students working together to complete a task and grasp a lesson
3. The pause procedure
Use the pause procedure to intersperse strategic pauses into your class lectures and enhance student understanding of teaching materials.
4. The muddiest point technique
The muddiest point technique involves asking students to write notes on the most unclear or most confusing element of a given homework assignment, lecture, or class discussion.
The Muddiest Point: Sample Phrasing What have you found to be the muddiest point so far in this assignment? What topic do you find to be the least clear?Asking students to write down what they find to be the least clear is a powerful exercise because it compels them to grade or rate their own knowledge of a topic.In short, the exercise helps students reflect on the lesson and identify concepts needing further examination or study. [caption id="attachment_1764" align="alignnone" width="640"]

5. The devil's advocate approach
The devil’s advocate approach asks one or more students to take the opposing side of a predominant argument or point of view being discussed during a lesson.

- Think more critically, challenging participants to expand their understanding of the perspectives surrounding an issue and to view it through a different lens
- Become more engaged, fostering involvement by drawing out opinions to explore the complexity of an issue being studied
- Produce deeper understanding of topics or issues, using rigorous analysis to collectively clarify, probe, and pose alternatives to problems being discussed
“[provide] students with multiple perspectives, and [challenge] students with tough questions. In such a classroom, students will become more engaged and students’ critical thinking and writing skills will be enriched.”
6. Peer teaching activities
A flexible and multi-faceted approach to active learning, peer instruction encompasses a range of scenarios where students instruct skills or explain concepts to classmates.
- Reading buddies — A cooperative learning strategy that pairs two students who work together to read an assigned text.
- Cross-age peer tutoring — A peer learning strategy involving students in different grades, wherein which one student instructs another on material in which the first student is advanced and the second student is a novice.
- Role play — A group of students is split into smaller groups and given a specific task to complete, like in small group work. However, in addition to working on a specific task, the members of each group are asked to play a certain “role”. Unlike in traditional role-play, all members of one group play the same role, not individually assigned roles.
7. Game-based learning platforms
Game-based learning platforms add depth and differentiation to the educational process and allow students to work with their instructors to achieve their learning objectives.
Math games and websites are at the forefront of delivering active learning through technology. One example is Prodigy, a platform that constantly adjusts questions to tackle student trouble spots and delivers math problems with words, charts pictures, and numbers. Prodigy is free to play and aligned with curricula for grades 1 to 8 teachers. Create and sign into your free teacher account here:It is really about how students use devices to create artifacts of learning that demonstrate conceptual mastery through relevant application and evaluation...Give kids challenging problems to solve that have more than one right answer and let them use technology to show that they understand. This is the epitome of active learning...

8. Rotating chair group discussions
Rotating chair group discussions encourage students to actively listen to selected speakers who follow a pattern of guiding class discussion and summarizing previous points. Students lead and stimulate class discussion as they “rotate” roles, repeatedly selecting the following speaker.
- When a student wishes to participate, they must raise their hand
- The student who is speaking calls on the next speaker, ideally someone who has not yet contributed
- The student who has been called upon briefly summarizes what the previous student said before developing the idea further
The Teacher’s Role in the Active Learning Classroom
While active learning places an emphasis on the student’s role in the learning experience, there is no doubt that the success of any active learning strategy starts with the thought and planning of a conscientious instructor.
With the goal of teaching mindful learners who actively pursue knowledge, teachers become more actively engaged in how they teach the curriculum and how they develop each student's learning potential. They mix and match a variety of ... tactics to ensure that students not only learn more, better, and faster -- they also learn smarter.
As many of the techniques above are open-ended, the active learning strategies underpinning them may differentiate for different types of learners. Be sure to consider how you can differentiate instruction while still enjoying the benefits of these active learning strategies.
Active Learning Techniques: Key Questions
To help the success of these strategies, put yourself in your students’ position and imagine how they might experience it. This will help you get a feel for the lesson.
- Will this be engaging and exciting for my students?
- Can this activity deploy formative assessment strategies?
- Is the student placed at the center of this learning strategy?
- Will this encourage my students to discuss a topic with one another?
- Am I giving students the opportunity to reflect on the learning process?
- Is this activity getting my students to think deeply and critically about a topic or lesson or is it simply a comprehension exercise?
Making Space for Active Learning Strategies
While all of the active learning strategies outlined above can be deployed in traditional, lecture-oriented classrooms, the physical arrangement of your room and the number of students in the class can make some of them difficult to perform easily.
Final Thoughts on Active Learning Strategies
Active learning plainly puts the focus on the learner: what the learner does, what the learner thinks, and how the learner behaves. But, crucially, active learning doesn't simply happen with a few simple instructions: it occurs in the classroom where the teacher is committed to a learning environment that makes active learning possible. Ultimately, these active learning strategies will help build understanding rather than memorization of facts, giving students the confidence to apply learning to different problems and contexts and achieve greater autonomy over their learning.And, after all, that’s exactly makes active learning “active”: putting students at the center of the learning process as they take the initiative to learn.Downloadable List of the 8 Active Learning Strategies
Click here to download the list of strategies to print and keep at your desk.
>>Create or log in to your teacher account on Prodigy -- a free, game-based learning platform that assesses student progress and performance as they play. Aligned with curricula across the English-speaking world, it’s loved by more than 800,000 teachers and 30 million students.