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PROPOSING INNOVATIVE LEARNING WITH ACTIVE 

LEARNING 

 IN THE CLASSROOM 

Syamsudarni  

 

 

Abstract: Research consistently has shown that traditional lecture methods, in which 

teachers/lecturers talk and students listen, dominate college and university classrooms. 

It is therefore important to know the nature of active learning, the empirical research on 

its use, the common obstacles and barriers that give rise to faculty members' resistance 

to interactive instructional techniques, and how faculty, faculty developers, 

administrators, and educational researchers can make real the promise of active 

learning. Instead of some examples of active learning are provided below, cooperative 

learning technique is the main focus as one of technique that the writers exposed. To 

conclude, the active learning is an alternative teaching to increase the quality of 

graduates. The use of active learning approach can increase the quality of teaching and 

learning. 

Key words: Active learning, innovative, classroom, cooperative learning 

 

I. INTRODUCTION 

 Teaching is not only about explaining which transferring the knowledge 

automatically to the students’ brain, but teaching and learning needs the mental 

involvement and students’ work themselves. Active learning can give good contribution 

in students’ learning achievement. The question is “what makes the learning active?” to 

answer this question the students must do many assignments, they must use their brain, 

analyzing, solving problems, and applying what they learnt. Active learning must be 

joyful and exciting (Silberman, 2006). 

There are numerous findings expose that the quality of language process will 

increase if the atmosphere of the class gives opportunities to the students in expressing 

their ideas, asking question, discussion, and using the knowledge they got actively.  So, 

the students tend to understand more and remember the new knowledge. 

Various approaches, methods, and techniques can be used in teaching and 

learning process, but generally those can be categorized in two models: Active and 

Passive learning. The description of two models is as follows 



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The picture shows two models of learning: active and passive learning. It also 

shows that the active learning model tends to make students remember more (retention 

rate of knowledge) the course.  Therefore, the active learning model is an alternative 

approach to increase the quality of graduates. The use of active learning techniques can 

increase the quality of teaching and learning. 

II. DISCUSSION 

2.1.  What is Active Learning? 

Active learning happens when learners are given the opportunity to take a more 

interactive relationship with the subject matter of a course, encouraging them to 

generate rather than simply to receive knowledge. In an active learning environment, 

trainers facilitate rather than dictate the trainees’ learning. 

Surprisingly, educators’ use of the term “active learning” has relied more on 

intuitive understanding than a common definition. Consequently, many faculties assert 

that all learning is inherently active and that students are therefore actively involved 

while listening to formal presentations in the classroom. Analysis of the research 

literature (Chickering and Gamson, 1987), however, suggests that students must do 

more than just listen. They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. 

Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order 

thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed 



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that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving 

students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing. 

 

 

 

2.2. Characteristics of Active Learning 

According to Bonwell (1995), active learning has some characteristics as follows: 

 Learning process emphasis is not focusing on delivering information, but 
developing students’ critical thinking and analysis. 

 Students do not only listen the lecturing passively, but also do something related to 

their course actively. 

 The stressing in teaching and learning is in values exploration and attitudes related 
to the course. 

 The students must think aloud, analyze, and evaluate their learning. 

 Feedback will be given directly and faster to the students in the teaching and 
learning process. 

Beside those characteristics, generally active learning can be described as 

follow, (1) the interaction in teaching and learning process can increase positive 

interdependence of students, in which the students learn together to consolidate the 

knowledge through active exploration in learning; (2) each student must involve 

actively in teaching and learning process, and the teacher assesses each student for 

individual accountability; (3) the active learning process needs high cooperation 

teacher-students and among students to increase social skills. 

While quality of learning is increasing, the mastery of the course is increasing 

too. Thomas’ study (1972) shows that after 10 minutes lecturing, the students tent to 

lose their concentration to listen the lecturing. Of course, it is ineffective to continue the 

teaching and learning process without effort to solve it. By using techniques in active 

learning, the teacher can avoid the problem. The students’ participation in teaching and 

learning process can decrease the students’ boring and increase their motivation to 

learn. Finally, the teaching and learning process can achieve high learning outcomes. 

2.3. How can Active Learning be Incorporated in the Classroom 

The modification of conventional lectures is one way to incorporate active 

learning in the classroom (Penner, 1984). Research has demonstrated, for example, that 

if a faculty member allows students to consolidate their notes by pausing three times for 

two minutes each during a lecture, students will learn significantly more information 

(Ruhl, Hughes, and Schloss, 1987). Two other simple yet effective ways to involve 

students during a lecture are to insert brief demonstrations or short, ungraded writing 

exercises followed by class discussion. Certain alternatives to the lecture format further 

increase student level of engagement are (1) the feedback lecture, which consists of two 

mini-lectures separated by a small group study session built around a study guide, and 

(2) the guided lecture, in which students listen to a 20-to-30-minutes presentation 



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without taking notes, followed by their writing or five minutes what they remember and 

spending the remainder of the class period in small groups clarifying and elaborating 

the material. 

Discussion in class is one of the most common techniques promoting active 

learning. If the objectives of a course are to promote long-term retention of information, 

to motivate students toward further learning, to allow students to apply information in 

new settings, or to develop students’ thinking skill, then discussion is preferable to 

lecture. Research has suggested, however, that to achieve these goals faculty must be 

knowledgeable of alternative techniques and strategies for questioning and discussion 

(Hyman, 1980) and must create a supportive intellectual and emotional environment 

that encourages students to take risks (Lowman, 1984). 

Several additional techniques promoting active learning have been similarly 

shown to influence favorably students’ attitudes and achievement. Visual-based 

instruction, for example, can provide a helpful focal point for other interactive 

techniques. Other active learning techniques worthy of instructors’ use include think-

pair-share, case studies, students’ debate, minute papers, brainstorming, and cooperative 

learning. The more explanation will be presented in the following sub-chapter. 

2.4.  Some Techniques of Active Learning 

This paper discussed some techniques of active learning, but the writers are 

more focusing on cooperative learning technique as an example. 

2.4.1 Think-Pair-Share 

Think-pair-share is a simple activity you can use in any classroom format. Give 

the learner time to think about a topic, turn to their neighbor for a short discussion, and 

then share the results with the rest of the learners.  

2.4.2 Case Studies 

Case studies use real-life stories that describe what happened to a community, 

family, work, or individual to prompt learners to integrate their newly-learned 

knowledge with their knowledge of real-world situations, actions, and consequences. 

2.4.3 Students Debate 

Students debate give opportunity to the students to express their argument to the 

some controversial issues. Usually the activity is in the forms of grouping. Each groups 

should defends on the argument to defeat another group argument. The technique can 

make students to think effectively to many topics, so they have strongly understanding 

with many issues. The very important process is that students can do self explanation 

and students tutoring to each other. 

2.4.4 Minute Papers 

This technique gives opportunity to the students to express their understanding 

and also some problem that they don’t understand yet. Students can synthesize the 

material provided before. In the end of the study, student should answer some questions 

to check their understanding about the lesson. Some example questions are:  

1. What have you learnt today? 

2. What material don’t you understand yet? 



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2.4.5 Brainstorming 

Brainstorming is another simple technique that can involve the whole class in a 

discussion. Introduce a topic or problem and then ask for the learners input, which you 

record on the board. 

2.5. Cooperative Learning as One of Active learning method 

Many experts give variety definitions of cooperative learning but certain 

features are common for them. For language learning context, cooperative learning can 

be defined as a class grouping of students who learn to work together on specific tasks 

or projects in such a way that all students in the group benefit from the interactive 

experience. It offers to organize the group works to enhance learning and increase 

academic achievement (Olsen and Kagen in Kessler, 1992:1). Jacob (1999: 13) 

describes cooperative learning is a diverse group of instructional methods in which 

small groups of students work together and aid each other in completing academic 

tasks. It is carefully structured or organized so that each learner interacts with others 

and all learners are motivated to increase each other’s learning.  

According to Slavin (1995: 2), cooperative learning refers to a variety of 

teaching methods in which students work in small group to help one another learn 

academic content. In cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help each other, 

to discuss and argue with each other, to assess each other’s current knowledge and fill 

in gaps in each other understands. Cooperative work rarely replaces teacher instruction, 

but rather replaces individual seatwork, individual study and individual drill. When 

properly organized, students in cooperative groups work with each other to make 

certain that everyone in the group has mastered the concepts being taught. In the 

cooperative classroom, the student-centered learning is stressed more rather than 

teacher-centered. So, students involve actively in the teaching and learning process. 

Five principal Student Team Learning methods have been developed and 

extensively researched. Three are general cooperative learning methods adaptable to 

most subjects and grade levels, namely: Students Teams-Achievement Division 

(STAD), Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), and Jigsaw. The remaining two are 

comprehensive curricula designed for use in particular subjects, namely: Cooperative 

Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) for reading and writing instruction and 

Team Accelerated Instruction (TAI) for mathematics. All five methods incorporate 

team rewards, individual accountability, and equal opportunities for success, but in 

different ways. 

Effective cooperative learning method has seven basic components, namely 

positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, 

group processing, structures, and heterogeneous grouping. Many studies related to 

cooperative leaning have been conducted (Slavin, 1995). Overall finding suggests that 

across a wide range of subject areas and age group, cooperative methods produce 

superior results compared to other teaching methods on measurement of such variables 

as (1) achievement, (2) self-esteem, (3) liking for school, (4) intergroup relations, and 

(5) use of higher level of thinking. 



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Besides the strength, cooperative learning has also some weaknesses. Arends 

(1994) states that using cooperative learning models can be difficult for a beginning 

teacher because it requires the simultaneous coordination of a variety activities. He also 

says that cooperative learning lesson take more time than most other instructional 

models because they rely on small group instruction. Besides it takes much time to 

complete the tasks because some of the students are not active and there are many 

variations of activities. 

2.6. Why Active Learning is Important? 

Research has shown that active learning is an exceptionally effective training 

technique. Regardless of the subject matter, when active learning is compared to 

traditional teaching methods (such as lecture), participants learn more material, retain 

the information longer, and enjoy the seminar more. Active learning allows adult 

learners to learn in the classroom with the help of the trainer and other participants, 

rather than on their own. 

Use of ‘active learning’ in the classroom is vital because of their powerful 

impact upon students' learning. For example, several studies have shown that students 

prefer strategies promoting active learning to traditional lectures. Other research studies 

evaluating students' achievement have demonstrated that many strategies promoting 

active learning are comparable to lectures in promoting the mastery of content but 

superior to lectures in promoting the development of students' skills in thinking and 

writing. Further, some cognitive research has shown that a significant number of 

individuals have learning styles best served by pedagogical techniques other than 

lecturing. Therefore, a thoughtful and scholarly approach to skillful teaching requires 

that faculty become knowledgeable about the many ways strategies promoting active 

learning have been successfully used across the disciplines. Further, each faculty 

member should engage in self-reflection, exploring his or her personal willingness to 

experiment with alternative approaches to instruction. 

2.7.  What are the Barriers? 

To address adequately why most faculty have not embraced recent calls for 

educational reform, it is necessary first to identify and understand common barriers to 

instructional change, including the powerful influence of educational tradition; faculty 

self-perceptions and self-definition of roles; the discomfort and anxiety that change 

creates; and the limited incentives for faculty to change. 

But certain specific obstacles are associated with the use of active learning 

including limited class time; a possible increase in preparation time; the potential 

difficulty of using active learning in large classes; and a lack of needed materials, 

equipment, or resources. 

Perhaps the single greatest barrier of all, however, is the fact that faculty 

members' efforts to employ active learning involve risk--the risks that students will not 

participate, use higher-order thinking, or learn sufficient content, that faculty members 

will feel a loss of control, lack necessary skills, or be criticized for teaching in 

unorthodox ways. Each obstacle or barrier and type of risk, however, can be 

successfully overcome through careful, thoughtful planning. 



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III. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS  

The reform of instructional practice in higher education must begin with faculty 

members’ efforts. An excellent first step is to select strategies promoting active learning 

that one can feel comfortable with. Such low-risk strategies are typically of short 

duration, structured and planned focused on subject matter that is neither too abstract 

nor too controversial, and familiar to both the faculty member and the students. 

Faculty developers can help stimulate and support faculty members' efforts to 

change by highlighting the instructional importance of active learning in the newsletters 

and publications they distribute. Further, the use of active learning should become both 

the subject matter of faculty development workshops and the instructional method used 

to facilitate such programs. And it is important that faculty developers recognize the 

need to provide follow-up to, and support for, faculty members' efforts to change. 

Academic administrators can help these initiatives by recognizing and rewarding 

excellent teaching in general and the adoption of instructional innovations in particular. 

Comprehensive programs to demonstrate this type of administrative commitment 

should address institutional employment policies and practices, the allocation of 

adequate resources for instructional development, and the development of strategic 

administrative action plans. 

Equally important is the need for more rigorous research to provide a scientific 

foundation to guide future practices in the classroom. Currently, most published articles 

on active learning have been descriptive accounts rather than empirical investigations, 

many are out of date, either chronologically or methodologically, and a large number of 

important conceptual issues have never been explored. New qualitative and quantitative 

research should examine strategies that enhance students' learning from presentations; 

explore the impact of previously overlooked, yet educationally significant, 

characteristics of students, such as gender, different learning styles, or stage of 

intellectual development; and be disseminated in journals widely read by faculty. 

In retrospect, it appears that previous classroom initiatives and written materials 

about active learning have all too often been isolated and fragmented. The resulting 

pedagogical efforts have therefore lacked coherence, and the goal of interactive 

classrooms has remained unfulfilled. Through the coordinated efforts of individual 

faculty, faculty developers, academic administrators, and educational researchers, 

however, higher education in the coming decade can make real the promise of active 

learning. Cooperative learning – as a one of the examples of active learning – is highly 

recommended to practice in classroom. 

 

 

 

 



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REFERENCES 

Bonwell, C.C.1995. Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. Center for 

Teaching and Learning, St. Louis College of Pharmacy.  

Chickering & Gamson. March 1987. Seven Principles for Good Practice. AAHE 

Bulletin, 39: 3-7. ED 282 491. 6 pp. MF-01; PC-01. 

Hyman, R. T. 1980. Improving Discussion Leadership. New York: Columbia Univ., 

Teacher College Press. 

Jacobs, H. L. et.all. 1981. Teaching ESL Composition: A Practical Approach. 

Massachusetts: Newbury House. 

Kessler. 1992. Cooperative Language Learning, a Teacher’s Resource Books. New 

Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

Lowman, J. 1984. Mastering the Techniques of Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Penner, J. G. 1984. Why Many College Teachers Cannot Lecture. Springfield, III.: 

Charles C. Thomas. 

Ruhl, K. L., Hughes, C. A., and Schloss, P. J. 1987. Using the Pause Procedure to 

Enhance Lecture Recall. Teacher  Education and Specific Education, 10: 14-18. 

Silberman, M. L. 1996. Active Learning: 101 Cara Belajar Siswa Aktif. Translated by 

Raisal Muttaqien. 2006. Bandung: Penerbit Nusamedia. 

Slavin, R. E. 1995. Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice. 

Massacuhusetts: Allyn & Bacon.  

Thomas, J. 1972.  The Variation of Memory with Time for Information Appearing 

during a Lecture. Studies in Adult Education, 4, 57-62