Active learning is a dynamic approach that helps you actively engage with what you read, write, and learn. Instead of passively absorbing information, it encourages you to use various techniques to deepen your understanding and retain knowledge throughout your education. This approach engages with adaptability by fostering skills that help you to become flexible and responsive to challenges.
Ask Questions
During your lectures, seminars and tutorials, you should ask questions to clarify and question the material.
Discussions
To ensure that you are active in your learning, you should engage in discussions with your peers both during your classes and outside of lesson time. You can gain feedback from your peers as well as further your understanding on subjects by gaining different opinions, viewpoints and biases.
Curiosity
Curiosity directly encourages active learning, your inquisitiveness to seek answers to questions fosters a deeper understanding of subjects, resulting in improved information retention and improves your critical thinking skills.
Note Taking
Taking effective notes is vital for managing the information you listen to and read during your lectures, seminars and tutorials. There are a variety of different note taking techniques, and you may find different techniques more effective than others depending on the information you need to record and on your own individual learning style.
You do not need to write everything down, but you should record the most important information as well as additional questions and thoughts that you may have. You can record notes from lectures, seminars, tutorials and additional resources that you may be reading, but you should always write down the source of your information.
For more information and guidance on note taking, you can sign up to our workshop here.
Avoiding plagiarism
Furthering on from note taking, one of the most common reasons people are flagged for plagiarism is because they do not include the citations they are using in their notes. You must always add your citations to avoid unintentionally plagiarising when writing from your notes.
For more information on plagiarism in academic writing you can read our dedicated guide here.
Applied Learning
Applied learning is the translation and application of knowledge gained from education to real-world situations. Participating in the applied learning model can help you to develop a greater understanding of how your skills from university can be used elsewhere within your current and/or future employment.
Applied Learning and Adaptability go hand in hand, demonstrating not only your ability to acquire knowledge but also your skill in applying that knowledge to real-world situations. While applied learning focuses on translating theory into practice, adaptability ensures that you can adjust to changing circumstances, new challenges, and unexpected obstacles.
Ways in which you can interact with the applied learning models are through your course at university, as well as additional opportunities offered here at Derby. You can pursue internships or work-experience that will offer experience related to your field of study. You can also explore additional research opportunities at the university with your peers or by yourself through the Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme (URSS) which can also provide hands-on experience in solving issues and engaging with meaningful research. Another way that you can engage with applied learning is through joining student-led initiatives, societies, or organisations focused on specific skills can further deepen your practical knowledge.
Reflective Learning
Reflective learning is a process of self-reflection that involves looking back at experiences and critically analysing them. It’s important to reflect on both successful and unsuccessful events, as this allows you to learn from a variety of past experiences, and what went well or not well.
Engaging in reflective learning can allow you to transform surface-level learning into deep learning.
For further information on different Learning types, look at our Agile Learning guide.
