engleski

Classroom as a Context for Active Learning

The demands of contemporary education are no longer possible to meet in a system that emphasizes teaching and neglects the learning that goes on in the classroom. The shift must be made toward active learning. Active learning is such learning that enables a high level of autonomy and self-monitoring, and the application of various mental strategies and specific cognitive skills to differentiate between important and unimportant information, analyze and compare, construct new knowledge on the previous experiences and think critically. Due to all these processes it enables long lasting retention of information. The active learning strategies help to create classroom situations that enable students to construct knowledge. The constructivist model of education is characterized by change in teacher-student relationship, use of various information sources, and the curriculum based on student activity. For the purposes of this paper, these dimensions in primary classrooms were taken into consideration. Research on active learning usually deals with secondary or college students, in spite the fact that active learning is possible, and necessary, to organize at all education levels. The aim was to find out whether the contemporary classrooms serve as a context for active learning intended to develop students’ competences. A study with 306 participants (students in the 4th and 8th grade) was conducted. The intention was to explore the presence of certain active learning strategies and their frequency. The differences in active learning strategies based on school type and students’ age were also looked into. The statements in the questionnaire referred to the subject called Croatian language. The analysis of the obtained data has shown that there is one factor covering active learning, and it consists of 28 items of the questionnaire. The results suggest that the Croatian language lessons are characterized by pleasant emotions, cooperative learning, students’ initiative, along with strong teacher’s authority, but also critical thinking and diverse teaching and learning activities. There is a statistical significant difference between younger and older students suggesting that the active learning strategies are more present among the fourth-graders than the eight-graders. This is rather unexpected since it is believed that it is more efficient to apply the tasks that are more cognitively challenging with older students, as well as self-monitored learning and critical thinking. There is also the difference between schools where pre-service teachers go to practice their teaching skills with their teacher-mentors, and the regular schools. This difference could be explained with the more extensive professional development required for teacher-mentors, so they are consequently more aware of the benefits of the active learning strategies and they use them more frequently. The results can serve as a platform for the discussion about the literacy results of Croatian students in PISA exam.

classroom; active learning; learning strategies; constructivism

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