There are many reasons why active learning is so wonderful:

There is robust evidence that it improves student learning outcomes. One meta-analysis of 225 different studies on active learning found that students in traditional lecture classes were 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in active learning classes.

What’s more, there is growing evidence that there are forms of active learning that improve learning outcomes for all students, but also improve learning outcomes disproportionately for women and underrepresented students. In essence, these teaching strategies have the effect of leveling the playing field.

My main problem with non-active learning–basically, too much on lecturing–is that it’s an extremely frustrating process. When I lecture too much, I don’t get any immediate feedback from students about whether they are learning. I can periodically pause my lecture to allow students to answer questions or ask them if they understand, but that doesn’t tell me much. (And often, I will get false messages that things are going well when they really aren’t for many students.) The best way to really know if students understand is to ask them to do something with the knowledge that you think they’ve just gained. When I lecture too much, I don’t find out about my students’ understanding until they take an exam. That’s too late to make any real changes. (In theory, homework assignments have a quicker turn around time, but they are usually graded by students here and I never see them.) So, teaching via lectures is like driving where you can only see what was in front of your car 5 minutes ago. You wouldn’t drive your car like that, so why would you teach like that? Active learning allows me to make decisions about teaching in real-time, informed by how students demonstrate their mastery in class. And that makes teaching much less frustrating for me.

But, let’s also be honest here. Active learning often takes more time to prepare and is more difficult to pull off well than lecturing. And yet, I find it far more enjoyable than lecturing. Why is that? Dan Ariely (see his TED Talk) reminds us that people are motivated to work hard by seeing the fruits of their labor. So, what motivates me to put in the extra effort for active learning? I do it because I am rewarded by being able to see the immediate results of my efforts–students learn and do right in front of my eyes. What a thrill that is!