Overview

Active and challenging learning should be a central part of the curriculum and teaching strategies. Active learning is an approach to teaching and the curriculum where students actively construct their knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of activities, formative assessments and summative assessments.

An important part of active learning is for students to face and deal with complexity and challenge. Too often curriculum and teaching can be designed to minimise challenge and the risk of failure. However, this fails to represent what happens in the real world and can lead to superficial learning and student effort. Central to all the approaches described is the idea of encouraging students to deal with complexity and ambiguity and be challenged to extend their knowledge, skills and beliefs. Of course, we must not overwhelm students but provide the appropriate level of challenge based on what students can currently do and what they currently know.

Facilitating active and challenging learning

Active and challenging learning should be a central part of the curriculum and teaching strategies. Active learning is an approach to teaching and the curriculum where students actively construct their knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of activities, formative assessments and summative assessments. Examples of such activities might include:

• Discussions
• Giving presentations
• Experiments
• Quizzes
• Listening to and watching videos or podcasts
  
  

In-class scheduled teaching should be designed to encourage active learning. The resources and prompts provided as guided learning in BREO are crucial in supporting students to actively engage with their learning.

A tool that might help you think about how to design active learning is the Trigger, Review, Expectations, Consolidation (TREC) model. Originally designed to support online learning during the pandemic, it can be applied to in-class teaching as well as guided learning in BREO.

In preparing students for the real world, they must learn to address complexity, failure, ambiguity and be challenged intellectually. Higher Education Learning Framework practices (see Nugent et al, 2019) to consider in creating an active and challenging curriculum and teaching environment are:

• Provide ill-structured learning problems such as those used in problem-based learning that allow students to be challenged and consolidate knowledge from across the subject.
  
  
• Foster a course culture that encourages exploration, risk and creativity.
  
  
• Allow students to take risks and be creative within a structured and safe environment. For example, through formative assessments.
  
  
• Dealing with challenge is often easier in collaboration with others. In groups, students realise they are not alone in finding certain topics challenging and together they can support each other.
  
  
• Share your own experiences of being challenged and how you overcame them. Inspirational guest speakers are another way you can achieve this.