Engaging Activities for Active Learning: Connecting, Supporting, and Empowering Educators in the Two-Year, Technical, and Career Colleges

Infuse student success into any program with our “Engaging Activities for…” Series. Written and compiled by National Student Success Institute (NSSI ^®) co-founders Amy Baldwin, Steve Piscitelli, and Robert Sherfield, the material is sure to connect, support, and empower educators in the Two-Year, Technical, and Career Colleges. These booklets contain strategies, procedural information, and activities that you can use with your students immediately.

The phrase “sage on the stage” was once a compliment to any professor who lectured to a group of eager, attentive students. Now the phrase identifies professors who have not embraced the active learning movement. Active learning, a mainstay in elementary education, has found its way to the college classroom, but not without its detractors and not without some explanation and training for those whose own college days were spent listening and quietly taking notes during class. Simply put, active learning describes any teaching or learning strategy that requires more of students than listening passively. With active learning, they may be applying information in new contexts, conducting experiments, devising instruments to collect data, writing the results of their own learning, or teaching a group of students what they know about a subject. The goal with active learning is to engage the student in learning activities and make him or her responsible for what is retained.

Amy, Steve, and Robb have developed this practical compilation, Engaging Activities for Active Learning, as an indispensable, hands-on resource for educators to address the topic of active learning. This booklet will empower teachers, professional development coordinators, coaches, and administrators with tools to actively engage in their classes. They are confident you will find these activities as useful as they have with their students.

If you like this NSSI^® Booklet on Engaging Activities for Active Learning, you will love the series: Academic Success, Retention, Understanding the Culture of College, Critical Thinking, and Motivation.