Active learning: views and actions of students and teachers in basic education

Abstract

This article discusses how teachers and adult, female, immigrant students in basic education deal with active learning. The study orientations, mental models of learning and images of ideal students of the two groups are compared both with each other and with actual educational practice, in order to obtain insight into the impediments to active learning experienced by teachers in basic education. We suggest, on the basis of four case studies, that the students’ ‘passive attitude’, which teachers experience as culturally determined and problematic, might unintentionally be exacerbated by the teaching strategies used. Teachers tend to take too much responsibility for relating students’ experiences to the subject matter and give little attention to teaching them study strategies.