Active Learning is Future Proof

What promoted your visit to India and this series of workshops?
Cambridge University Press has launched a new series of books aimed at international primary schools that encourages schools and teachers to adopt a new style of teaching based on the active learning principles. I was invited to India by the local sales team to conduct this series of workshops to introduce teachers here to the active learning philosophy and pedagogy.

What are the most important active learning principles?
1) Complete teacher and student engagement is crucial. If students are actively engaged, they will learn with pleasure. There's an only saying that I keep in minutes, 'Tell me and I forgot; show me and I remember; involve me and I understand'. Once you understand it you can apply it, you'll realise that the problem-solving approach benefits not just students, but teachers too.

2) We need to move away from the teacher at the front scenario to a more interactive learning space. We need to apply the principles of guided learning so that students can learn things by themselves through experience and they can also learn from each other. Experiential learning is important. I apply the principles that I would like to propagate in my own teaching. I engage the teachers in my workshops the way I expect the teachers to involve the students in their classes. That way they become actively immersed. In my workshop today, we had teachers out in the open walking around like dinosaurs. I had a strong visual presentation and asked them to write down the first five words that came to mind. These words can then be crafted into sentences and stories.

What are the three most important lessons that you hope these teachers will walk away with?
I hope the teachers walk away with a state of mind where they can
a) be creative
b) be unafraid to try something new
c) be unafraid to unfraid to fail; if something doesn't work, it doesn't matter, it;s not the end of the world.

Do you have a specific philosophy of teaching and learning that you are propagating?
I live the way I conduct a workshop. I tailor each workshop to suit my audience and I do it slightly differently each time. I'm enthusiastic and unbounded and won't hesitate try new stuff. The Cambridge University Press products encourage this style of learning and teaching that enables one to learn and grow.

Has the teaching landscape changed considerably on your watch?
I've been in education arena for round about 30 years and have been actively involved in publication for 40 years. The landscape has changed dramatically. The single biggest change is moving away from the teacher-front approach. What we now call blended learning – drawing inspiration and ideas from traditional paper products as well as technology products. Youtube for instance has dramatically informed the way that teachers teach.

What are the things you think are essential for teachers to keep in mind when teaching the generations of the future?
It's absolutely essential for teachers to retain their sense of creativity whilst blending in the technology we now have at hand. It's also important for teachers to tap into their own experience. We need to be creative and encourage our students to be creative too, least we produce students who have no interest in life and nothing to contribute to society.

When we say learner engagement, what are we talking of in terms of techniques?
Language teachers in particular have always use learner engagement to get students to respond. Math teaching on the other hand tends to happen the traditional way. 'I'm going to teach, now sit down and write some sums'. Instead, we have to get learners to say what they are doing and what they have understood. We have to work collaboratively. I've used this approach all through. We need to channel it into different subjects.

Where do you think the current modes of education fall short?
I think the education has go to move on from the teacher-lead mode to a more active mode.

What are the best practices that are currently being implemented in the education sphere and what are the practices that you think we need to implement in order to be future ready?
I think active learning is one of the best practices that is already in use. What's more it's future ready.