Misconception 3: Active learning means losing control over what students learn
A well-known fear is that active learning means “letting go”: giving students texts or videos to study on their own and hoping they pick up the right ideas. Many lecturers worry that students will focus on the wrong details or misunderstand important concepts. And then it just feels safer to just put everything in a lecture.
In reality, well‑designed active learning doesn’t mean abandoning all guidance; it means structuring guidance. The examples of active learning activities in the STEM active learning activity finder and best practice stories are all structured and guided, so that you see how students are thinking and can correct and support them in real time.
This way, you move from assuming they’ve understood because they listened, to actually observing what they understand because they have to show it.
- Use quick checkpoints during activities, p.a. a poll, a show of hands, or “write your answer on a mini‑whiteboard”. This tells you immediately who understands the concept and who is struggling.
- Walk around and listen in during group-work. You’ll hear misconceptions and partial understandings that never surface in traditional tutorials where only a few students ask for help.
- Structure your tutorials with a plenary start and closing (see the teaching activity Tutorial check-in and check-out). Begin with one or two key questions to see where the group stands; end with a short discussion of a central problem or concept. These gives you and the students a clear picture of progress within each session.
- After class, note down common errors, strong explanations, and topics that need revisiting; this becomes a valuable map of student learning.
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Deslauriers, L., Schelew, E., & Wieman, C. (2011). Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class. Science, 332(6031), 862-864. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1201783
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Lugosi, E., & Uribe, G. (2022). Active learning strategies with positive effects on students’ achievements in undergraduate mathematics education. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 53(2), 403-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2020.1773555