Retention
The process by which long-term memory preserves learning in such a way that it can be located, identified, and retrieved accurately in the future is called “retention.” Retention is influenced by many factors, but a critical factor is adequate time to process and reprocess information so that it can be transferred from short- to long-term memory. The encoding process from short-term to long-term memory that allows for retention takes time, and usually occurs during deep sleep. Since research on retention shows that the greatest loss of newly acquired information or a skill occurs within the first 18–24 hours, if a student can remember the information after 24 hours, there is a higher likelihood that it is now in long-term storage. If a student cannot remember the information after that period, it is most likely not permanently stored and will not be retained.
What Is Active Learning?
Although active learning's roots run deep from an historical perspective, the term active learning was popularized in the late twentieth century with Bonwell and Eison's (1991) ASHE-ERIC Report titled “Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom.” Several definitions of active learning exist, and the following are just a few:
Anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing (Bonwell & Eison, 1991)
A process whereby students engage in activities, such as reading, writing, discussion, or problem-solving, which promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content (The Regents of the University of Michigan n.d.)
A method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process (Weltman & Whiteside, 2010)
In Chapter 1 of this book, as well as in our book Interactive Lecturing: A Handbook for College Faculty, we argue for a broad understanding of active learning rather than simply associating the term with a specific instructional approach, activity, or technique (Barkley & Major, 2018, p. 21). We also suggest that active learning involves making students dynamic participants in their own learning in ways that require them to integrate new information into their personal knowledge and experience. In general, we suggest that active learning happens when students are engaged in their learning in one or more of the following ways (Barkley & Major, 2018):
Choosing sophisticated learning strategies
Seeking deep, conceptual understanding rather than surface knowledge
Finding connections that demonstrate personal relevance
Using self-regulatory and metacognitive strategies
Seeking to share personal perspectives
Seeking to understand others' perspectives
Demonstrating curiosity, interest, and enthusiasm
Offering input or suggestions
Seeking out additional and further opportunities for learning (p. 21)
Active learning puts into practice over a half-century of research that demonstrates that to truly learn, we need to take an idea or a concept or a problem solution and make it our own by working it into our personal knowledge and experience. What it boils down to in some ways is intellectual effort on the part of the student. It also encompasses the strategies that learners use.
Researchers have found that some learning strategies make some students more successful than others, and these strategies typically are examples of active learning. Educational psychologists Marton and Säljö (1976), for example, articulated such a concept in their notion of learning approaches. These researchers asked students to read materials from an academic text and then to describe what they had read. The researchers identified evidence of qualitative differences in students' reading outcomes: some students fully understood the argument and the evidence to support it, others partly understood the message and support, and still others could remember only various details. Marton and Säljö characterized the approaches in which students focused on what the authors meant and actively connected information to what they already knew as “deep learning approaches.” They characterized approaches in which students aimed to memorize facts and focus on discrete elements in the reading as “surface learning approaches.” Marton and Säljö furthered this conception of deep learning when they asked adult learners what they understood about “learning,” and made distinctions between different levels of their understandings. Säljö (1979) categorized answers in a hierarchical pattern, observing that each higher conception implied all that preceded it:
Learning is acquiring information or “knowing a lot.”
Learning is memorizing or “storing” information.
Learning is acquiring facts and skills that can be used.
Learning is making sense or “making meaning” of the various parts of information.
Learning involves comprehending or understanding the world by reinterpreting knowledge. (cited in Ramsden, 1992, pp. 26–27)
This final level echoes the definitions of active learning. Deep or active learning approaches, then, are evident when students seek deeper understanding rather than surface information, the latter of which rests lightly on the surface, inert and unassimilated. Some students come equipped with deep learning approaches, but instructors can also help students develop or improve such approaches.
What Are Active Learning Techniques?
Active learning strategies or techniques, sometimes confusingly referred to as simply active learning, refers to several specific models of instruction, which range from more to less structured, including discussion, worksheets, cooperative and collaborative learning, discovery learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning. It is easy to conflate active learning with group work, thinking, for example, that simply breaking a class into small groups so that more students have a chance to participate will result in student engagement. This belief is reinforced by NSSE and CCSSE survey questions that ask students to report the frequency with which they've participated in group activities, with the assumption that the larger the number, the more “engaged” that institutions' students are presumed to be. Bowen (2005) points out that NSSE, “which assesses the extent to which these pedagogies are used, has become one de facto operational definition of engagement” (p. 4).
We suggest that active learning techniques prompt students to engage in different learning tasks. By learning task, we mean the responsibility that an instructor expects students to do to help them meet important learning outcomes. By active learning technique, we mean the specific activity that the teacher intentionally designed to prompt students to complete the task. In Table 3.1, we offer examples of the tasks that can require active learning and techniques that can prompt them.
TABLE 3.1. Active Learning Tasks and Techniques
| Active Learning Task | Active Learning Technique |
| Listening | Analytic teams. Students assume predetermined roles while listening to a lecture. (SET 13) |
| Problem-solving |
Send a problem. Students try to solve a problem as a group, and then pass the problem and solution to a nearby group who does the same; the final group evaluates the
|