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Library Instruction for Librarians

Use this guide to assist with developing library instruction sessions.

What is Active Learning?

Active learning is an instructional approach in which students actively participate in the learning process, as opposed to sitting quietly and listening. Active learning builds on constructivist learning theory, which posits that people learn by connecting new ideas and experiences to what they already know.

Why Active Learning?

  • Research shows that active, social, contextual, engaging and student-owned learning experiences lead to better learning outcomes.
  • We also know that students begin to lose their attention after about 10 minutes of lecture, so sequence your lesson to balance lectures and demonstrations with an activity. Ideally, for an hour long instruction session, 2-3 activities will help with student engagement.
  • Furthermore, inclusive pedagogies included in this guide work beautifully in conjunction with engaged learning techniques to foster a sense of belonging among students.

Reference:

Active Learning Techniques:

Find 226 Active Learning Techniques

 

Suggestions for application to library instruction:

Focused Listing (keyword brainstorming prior to building a search strategy) – List several ideas related to the focus point. Helpful for starting new topics.

Socratic Questioning (How long does it take to publish a journal article? So, that makes a good case for citing other peoples’ hard work)– The instructor replaces lecture by peppering students with questions, always asking the next question in a way that guides

Make Them Guess (What’s a scholarly peer reviewed journal article?) – Introduce a new subject by asking an intriguing question, something that few will know the answer to (but should interest all of them). Accept blind guessing for a while before giving the answer to build curiosity.

Think-Pair-Share (work together to develop more effective search strategies & share with class what worked well and what didn’t for search results) – Students share and compare possible answers to a question with a partner before addressing the larger class.

Incorporation of active learning techniques will be demonstrated on the Lesson Planning page.