Active Learning

: This study aims to apply active learning in a foreign language context to improve L2 learners’ listening comprehension. Participants in this attempt were 56 EFL learners between 13 and 15 years old. To amass the required data, learners went through a ten-week treatment, in which participants in the experimental group received computer-mediated active learning intervention and those in the control group had computer-mediated listening activities in traditional lecture-based format. Since the focus of this study is on listening comprehension, tasks were designed in such a way so as to teach the basic tenets of listening including: a) reflective listening to comprehend meaning and content, b) reflective listening to clarify feelings, and c) listening to nonverbal cues. The aim was to find the possible effects of such intervention on learners’ listening comprehension. Scores on final exams and an attitude interview were compared between the two groups. Results of independent samples t-tests revealed that, as opposed to students in the control group, students in the experimental group performed significantly better and had much more positive attitudes toward the course. It was found that the proposed intervention is beneficial for English-language learners by reducing their anxiety in listening tasks and enhancing their motivation to take part in classroom activities and to do independent test tasks as their homework

In this paper the designing products of B.A. Sophomore students of architecture in Tehran University who were divided into two kinds of learning namely technical and skill-based learning. In technical learning the subjective steps of creativity process i.e. "insight", "preparation", "incubation", "intuition", and "verification" were discussed and it was suggested that these steps cannot be taught but in skill-based learning the objective steps of creativity process i.e. "combination", "mutation", "analogy", "first principle" and "emergence" in a form of an instructional and designing practice were studied. In skill-based learning, three kinds of learning namely "passive", "active" and "reflective are utilized. Passive learning is used by the student to discover the knowledge and skill of the instructor. The active learning which is based on the idea is utilized for helping the novice learners. The result of the case study indicated that the perception through creativity in the designing process is like building a bridge on the knowledge gap between teacher and student through studying the samples of architecture as an active learning and student's implicit knowledge as a reflective learning. In this paper the emphasis is on the values of education and the very important point about learning designing is the access to the creativity as a product of an educational process. To this end the instructors' concern on the quality of improving the novice learners' designing ability and considering the suggested model in order to evaluate the designing improvement is quite necessary and indispensible.

Perception and experience gained in the contemporary school could not help human beings' active learning. Totally, participation is the main element in active learning and thus, the active participation of students in the learning process is emphasized by education and learning in secondary schools. Given the importance of active learning, in this paper, the effective components in this type of learning has been identified. Among the three components involved in active learning, the component of participation in the learning process is selected and after a study of the model, two factors affecting the participation of children in the learning process are specified including social pattern and activation pattern of participation in the learning process. In this paper, the research uses a mixed method including a quantitative part and a qualitative part. The quantitative part uses a univariate T-test and the qualitative part uses a case-study method and content analysis to analyze the semi-structured interview. The study population in the quantitative part includes 279 male students of a secondary school in the city of Shiraz and the qualitative part includes 43 male students of the seventh grade of a secondary school in Shiraz. The results show that the majority of the respondents prefer a small class size. The findings emphasize the concept of participation in the learning process and introduce the factors of social interaction, individual and group activities, involvement and experience in the learning process for the indoor educational environment design and ultimately emphasize the factor of interaction as the most important criterion. 

Emerging as a novel instructional approach, Active Learning (AL) is predicated on paving the way for students to actively explore knowledge and reflect on the learning processes. Despite its robust theoretical foundations, AL has rarely been implemented by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in the Iranian context. A lion’s share of this hesitation may be ascribed to the lack of strong empirical findings to underscore its advantages and disadvantages. To fill in this lacuna, this mixed-methods study inspected the effects of AL on fostering EFL learners’ speaking skills (SSs) and willingness to communicate (WTC) in the Iranian context. For this purpose, a total of 87 intermediate EFL learners, were selected using a convenience sampling method. They were homogenized through a Key English Test (KET) and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 26) and a control group (n = 25). Afterward, a pre-test, interventions (lasting 18 75-miniute sessions held twice a week), and a post-test were administered. Then, eight participants who actively participated in the interventions were invited to a focus group interview to express their perceptions of and experiences with AL. The results of the independent samples t-tests documented that AL substantially contributed to fostering the participants’ SSs and WTC on the post-test. Additionally, the qualitative findings of a thematic coding analysis yielded four overarching themes; facilitating knowledge construction, developing metacognitive awareness, promoting self-regulated learning, and fostering motivation. The findings provide a number of implications for pertinent stakeholders.