Bonwell, Charles C., & Eison, James A.
(1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement In The Classroom.
ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, Washington, D.C.:
The George Washington University, School of Education and
Human Development.
Paired Pauses: stop for two minutes several times during
the lecture. Each time, students pair up with someone next
to them and discuss the lecture and compare notes.
End of Class Free Recall: at the end of class, students
are given three minutes to write down everything they can
recall from lecture.
Guided Lecture: the preceding technique (End of Class Free
Recall) is followed by students forming groups and reconstructing
the lecture.
Feedback Lectures: after each 20 minutes of lecture, students
pair off and respond to a discussion question provided by
the instructor.
Student-Generated Questions: one class per week is devoted
to answering open-ended student-generated questions over
material covered so far in the course. Students each make
up questions, specifying why they believe the question important.
The class then orders the questions in order of general
interest, and for the rest of the class the instructor answers
as many as he/she can.
“Explication de Texte”: model a good study
skill by reading passages from the text out loud and analyzing
them. Criticize, but be logical and unemotional about it
(most students only associate “criticize” with
emotional griping).
Media as Triggers for Discussion: instead of showing an
hour-long video, show short clips for class discussions,
short writing assignments, or to model what you want students
to do in an ensuing demonstration or laboratory assignment.
Case Studies: the most famous example of using case studies
is Harvard Business School. But Harvard also uses case studies
for undergraduate class of up to 80 students!