Personally I am a huge supporter of active learning and co-operative working.I feel that active lessons through things such as play or investigating and exploring are much more effective for children rather than the teacher standing infront of the class dictating to them. I believe active learning is effective because when it comes to a time in which they have to reflect on their learning they can think back to the exciting lesson that they really enjoyed and it will stick with them. I can say this from personal experience; when I was in primary 6 we were discussing Victorian Britain as a topic. My teacher set up a life-like Victorian Classroom at the back of the class. We each got a chance to sit in there for the day to experience what it was like for children in Victorian Britain. That is now a matter of years on and that lesson still sticks with me. Children enjoy interacting with their peers and by creating a environment where are working alongside their friends excites them and really draws them into the content of what you are saying. I can understand that people can argue it is not effective. If we rewind fifty years children were taught by the teacher standing infront of them dictating the lessons and back then it did work. However now we have an amazing opportunity to change the way learning is taught through the use of technology and play.
Through my own experience of learning I believe that co-operative working is really effective. When I could not understand what the teacher was trying to get across I would go to one of my peers who did understand and they would simplify what they were trying to say. As teachers I feel we can sometimes over complicate things so through co-operative learning children have the chance to help their peers. I also feel through co-operative learning a lot of life skills can be taught such as; learning to work in a team, co-operating with other people and listening to other peoples opinions. These are skills that you use in everyday life and by using them from a young age really gives children the chance to develop these. Working together also gives children time to process what you have just taught them. Letting them go away and discuss what they have just been told allows time for the information to actually sink in rather rushing on to the next part of that days lesson. Once again I understand that this is just my views on active and co-operative learning and that there can be disadvantages to this. One disadvantage I do understand is that children can go off task when working with peers and starting chatting about things other than the lesson. However my personal view is that the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages and when I am planning lessons I will try to make them as active as possible.
