Active methodologies turn the student into the driving force of their learning, representing a radical change compared to traditional education.
In this type of strategy, the student is not a passive subject who receives information but participates through their own experience in acquiring knowledge, competencies, and specific skills.
The implications of active methodologies are increasingly significant and are gaining great prominence thanks to the emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education.
For this reason, we have prepared an article where we thoroughly address what they are, what their characteristics are, and what types exist. Additionally, we will present you with the most commonly used examples.
If you want to know how to create valuable learning, keep reading because this article will interest you.
What Are Active Methodologies?
Active methodologies are strategies that allow the development of participatory and relevant learning for students who learn through their experience. They are usually integrated into processes in which students “learn how to learn.”
Unlike traditional education’s lectures where the student is merely a receiver of information, in active methodologies, they participate in constructing their learning process and become aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
Through various formats such as debates, projects, problem-solving, or interactive quizzes, among many others, the teaching process is structured around stimulating activities that focus on developing a specific discipline so that the student acquires preselected competencies and skills.
In this way, the student prepares to solve increasingly complex everyday life issues as they advance in their education.
These types of practices foster the student’s interest in exploration and research since by seeking solutions or overcoming challenges based on real problems—that is, by participating in meaningful experiences—students are more predisposed to critique and reflection.
Thus, active methodologies make the student the protagonist of their education through active communication where the teacher assumes a guiding role and addresses the academic needs of their students but without restricting their autonomy.
What Is the Purpose of Active Methodologies?
Active methodologies aim to train autonomous and responsible students who are capable of studying independently and working as a team while proactively participating in constructing their own knowledge.
Likewise, the learning achieved is deeper and more solid, allowing students to more easily retain the knowledge learned and have the necessary resources to apply it in similar future situations.
Characteristics of Active Methodologies
There are different types of active methodologies you can use in your training programs, as we will see later, but they all share common characteristics.
Below we list the most relevant ones:
- It is an action-based learning process where the student takes an active role, and the teacher acts as a guide but without hindering the student’s autonomy development.
- They awaken the student’s reflective interest as well as their commitment and responsibility toward their work while also encouraging them to learn from their mistakes since these are a natural part of processes.
- They allow students to establish connections between theoretical knowledge they study and their daily lives by creating links between principles and practice.
- They promote positive interdependence among students who develop skills that facilitate interaction through cooperative work. This way of working strengthens coexistence and reinforces skills such as empathy or active listening.
- They help students manage conflicts, exchange ideas and information, and learn from one another.
- They make it easier for students to plan, monitor, and also evaluate their own learning process.
- They rely on continuous assessment processes for students both individually and as a group when the work or task is performed as a team, as well as self-assessment and peer evaluation.
Types of Active Methodologies in Education
The different types of active methodologies promote intellectual curiosity, an investigative spirit among individuals, and honesty when facing weaknesses and working to improve them.
We can make an initial classification of these strategies based on how they can be applied by the educator. In this sense, active methodologies can be global when they occur throughout an entire course or individual or group-based depending on their format.
If we focus on where they are carried out, we can speak of internal active methodologies (performed in the classroom or school), external ones (referring to those carried out outside the educational environment such as at home or during extracurricular activities), or hybrid ones (combining activities inside and outside the classroom).
Examples of Active Methodologies and How to Apply Them in the Classroom
Active methodologies are currently part of curricular programming due to their innovative nature and the many benefits they provide to learning.
Pay attention to the 11 examples of active methodologies we have compiled to offer you a comprehensive view of the possibilities at your disposal.
Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a global and interdisciplinary modality that can be applied at any educational level, where students develop skills such as critical thinking and autonomy by planning, developing, and executing a project within a set timeframe.
To illustrate this, let’s refer to the case of a teacher asking their class to create a sustainable city.
This project involves subjects such as mathematics, geography, science, or technology.
The project has four phases: researching the topic (e.g., “What is a sustainable city?”, “How can pollution be reduced?”), planning and designing the city (assigning roles within the team and designing a model), building a physical prototype or creating a digital version, and finally, presenting the project.
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Problem-Based Learning
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) presents an initial complex challenge to a group of students to trigger self-directed and stimulating learning while the teacher remains as a facilitator without interfering in the process.
This type of methodology is usually introduced in secondary education or high school since students need to have a certain level of maturity to successfully tackle the challenges posed.
An example might involve the teacher asking students to investigate cases of possible water contamination-related poisoning in a town.
The teams must analyze potential causes and propose viable solutions based on real discoveries.
This exercise is excellent for developing environmental awareness and understanding how important it can be for citizens to adopt an active role in addressing community issues.
Thinking-Based Learning
Thinking-Based Learning (TBL) aims for students to develop skills such as critical, reflective, and creative thinking through deep analysis of a situation.
In other words, this methodology helps individuals think by applying cognitive strategies such as comparison, classification, cause-and-effect analysis, or decision-making.
The activation of thought can begin with brainstorming as an initial approach to the topic: for
example, reflecting on whether society’s diet is healthy.
After this first step, students can compare natural and ultra-processed foods and analyze how they affect people’s health.
The ultimate goal of this practice is to determine how nutrition can be improved by developing healthy menus and an effective communication campaign about good eating habits.
Cooperative Learning
As its name suggests, cooperative learning promotes collaboration among students by addressing diversity and fostering inclusive classrooms.
Students work together to achieve common goals, with their sense of belonging to a shared project strengthened by mutual dependence on one another’s success while maintaining both individual and group responsibility.
In these activities, the teacher plays an essential role by providing appropriate resources and support for successful development.
For instance, imagine a group of students tasked with researching different ways to develop circular economies in their communities. Each participant must individually find a specific method before sharing it with their team. Finally, all participants prepare and present a joint plan.
Flipped Classroom
When we talk about flipped classrooms, we refer to a combination of learning inside and outside the classroom. In this practice, roles are reversed: students independently research a topic using their own resources before presenting it in class for debate or collaborative problem-solving with their peers.
This is one of the most significant active methodologies because it allows students to become fully responsible for their learning process while reflecting on it—choosing their resources under teacher supervision if necessary.
In this way, they apply acquired knowledge at their own pace while using classroom time with teachers to resolve doubts. This dynamic can be applied to virtually any content or subject area—for instance, mathematics, history, or biology.
For example, teachers might ask students at home to watch a video on solving third-degree equations and complete exercises afterward. Students then note down questions for discussion with classmates during class time or seek help from teachers when needed.
Discovery Learning
Discovery learning encourages exploration, reasoning, and experimentation around specific topics using tools and resources provided by teachers. In this process, students must reach conclusions independently—often through real-world learning situations that add value to practice while motivating participants.
This active methodology consists of three phases: problem presentation, exploration/experimentation phase followed by discovery/conclusion phase.
The Environments or Corners
This type of active methodology is most commonly used in early childhood education.
It involves dividing classrooms into different learning spaces or environments so that students can experiment autonomously and flexibly.
Each didactic corner has a specific purpose, and children can integrate into the space that interests them the most.
One of its main proponents, Loris Malaguzzi, advocated for this method as key to awakening children’s curiosity at an early age, which is nurtured through their interactions with one another in these spaces.
The nature of the different areas of experimentation can be adapted to precise curricular needs.
Some examples of corners you can create in the classroom are:
- Symbolic play area, where children can represent everyday life situations through imagination and the development of social skills.
- Arts and crafts area, where children can explore their sensory and artistic expression using all kinds of craft materials.
- Construction area, where, with the help of interlocking pieces, recycled materials, and blocks, students can improve their spatial logic and, of course, their creativity.
Game-Based Learning (Gamification)
Gamification introduces play into the classroom, achieving greater student engagement and discovering the joy of learning by associating knowledge acquisition and experience with fun.
Positive emotions help solidify theory and improve information retention, which helps counteract the forgetting curve.
It can be a great resource for achieving good results in spelling in a fun way by proposing games such as riddles, creative writing, word searches, etc.
As participants achieve milestones, they gain rewards that motivate them to continue participating while strengthening their confidence in learning and their abilities.
The Case Method
The case method presents a dilemma about a real or fictional situation for students to debate and propose well-reasoned solutions. It is a process based on the inductive method, as it starts from specific cases to arrive at general conclusions or principles.
This allows them to apply theoretical knowledge to practical contexts, giving meaning to their learning.
This type of activity promotes teamwork, active listening, negotiation, responsibility, and decision-making.
For example, the teacher might pose the following question: “What would you do if you found a wallet with money on the street?”
From this specific case, students can engage in debates and argue their responses to arrive at universal conclusions about ethics and responsible decision-making in everyday life.
Simulations
Through simulations, students can realistically approach a situation or problem to reflect on the process across three phases:
- Initial Phase: Establishes the objectives of the activity and defines the rules of the simulation.
- Simulation Phase: Roles are assigned, and decisions are made to address the problem.
- Evaluation Phase: In this final stage of the exercise, students reflect on the solutions taken, analyze alternatives, and discuss the consequences of each choice.
Simulations are a highly versatile educational strategy that allows for deep exploration of various subjects such as social sciences and humanities, law and political science, medicine and health sciences, among others.
Design Thinking
Design thinking is based on creative problem-solving but from a user-centered approach through five phases:
- Understanding the user’s needs and emotions using empathy.
- Identifying the central problem based on all collected data.
- Generating innovative ideas to solve it.
- Creating models or representations of solutions.
- Evaluating prototypes through feedback obtained during testing.
This active methodology can be applied to all kinds of topics and is very useful for improving technological competencies in the classroom.
An example could be as follows: In a technology and entrepreneurship class, the teacher asks students to propose innovative solutions to reduce plastic waste.
The Importance of Active Methodologies in Education
Active methodologies in education are central to disruptive education that places students at the heart of the educational process through personalization, technology, and tailored monitoring.
In conclusion, it is important to highlight how active methodologies perfectly adapt to curricular programming where it is essential to:
- Adhere to specific learning objectives.
- Enable students to develop specific competencies and acquire determined knowledge.
- Combine strategies and resources that allow addressing an issue from different approaches and perspectives.
- Evaluate student progress based on objective, fair, and inclusive criteria and tools.
- Address diversity by adapting processes and monitoring to meet all students’ needs.
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