Hello, everyone. My name is Jane Cantrell, and I’m a second-year International Affairs major with a minor in Linguistics. I wanted to discuss a term that students at UGA will have heard a lot in passing: active learning.
Active learning is an evidence-based approach to instruction that focuses on the learning process and the construction of knowledge, not passive memorization of content. Common strategies include group activities and reflections, but active learning encompasses many more practices where students are active participants in their learning.
When I first started at UGA, I was highly suspicious of this “active learning” business. It seemed inefficient to spend class time talking with other students instead of absorbing the maximum possible number of lecture slides, which was how things worked in high school. But as I took more SPIA classes, my opinion shifted, and active learning assignments are now my favorite parts of my classes.
Every student reading this is thinking: “Group work? No thank you.” That was my initial take too. But — thankfully — SPIA professors go far beyond the mold of “make a PowerPoint with a group of strangers and then give the most awkward five-minute presentation of your life.” In my SPIA classes, we have held debates on national security issues, argued international law cases in moot courts, conducted diplomacy with each other in Statecraft, and simulated negotiating agreements to end real-world conflicts. These assignments have been engaging, informative, and challenging in ways that copying down slides just can’t compete with.
Since starting at SPIA, I’ve noticed three main benefits of active learning assignments.
First, they build skills that are applicable to the Grown Up World. For example, in my International Law class last spring, we held biweekly moot courts where we delivered arguments in support of our cases. Over the course of the semester, I could feel myself becoming more effective and confident in my public speaking ability, and I watched my group members develop in the same way. In another one of my classes, War and Human Security, the class split into ten groups, each based on a real-world state or organization, and the groups were tasked with agreeing on a framework to end the Myanmar conflict. Assignments like this are a great way to develop interpersonal skills — negotiating, persuading, compromising — that will be highly relevant to many SPIA majors after graduation.
I’ve also noticed that I remember course content better when I absorb it through an active learning strategy. Trust me: when you defend a country against war crimes allegations in front of forty-five people at the tender age of seventeen, you will remember what you were arguing about until the day you pass from this Earth. In my experience, learning by doing cements the content in your memory much more permanently than simply memorizing and regurgitating your notes.
Finally, one more great thing about active learning: it’s fun! Getting to debate and roleplay with other SPIA students will keep you engaged and looking forward to your next class. Group assignments will create bonds of friendship forged in fire. Mechanically copying PowerPoint slides just can’t compare to the creative and challenging assignments that SPIA professors come up with.
Active learning as practiced in SPIA will task you with building skills, talking to people, and developing an understanding of the material that goes much deeper than memorization could accomplish. My SPIA classes have allowed me to grow as a student and as a person, and I’m grateful for the experiences I have had with active learning.
Author:
Jane Cantrell
