Employing Active Learning Strategies to Become the Facilitator, Not the Authoritarian: A Literature Review

Abstract

Traditional higher education instruction involves an authoritarian educator who is charged with delivering information in lecture format to passive students. Within the past few decades, a new approach has gained popularity. Active learning allows the students to become more involved in their own learning. The educator becomes more of a facilitator than an authoritarian ruler in the classroom. The purpose of this literature review is to explore the historical underpinnings of active learning, its relevance in pedagogy and contemporary research. Also examined are several active learning strategies that can be utilized in the classroom, including lecturing with pause procedures, the flipped classroom, clickers, peer review and games. At one time, the idea of the college classroom was uniformity. The educator stood at the front of the room and lectured at his or her students. That instructor was the authority, the all-knowing leader who poured wisdom to the students while they busily