Introduction Our society today needs young people who are flexible, creative, and proactive –
young people who can solve problems, make decisions, think critically, communicate ideas
effectively and work efficiently within teams and groups. The ‘knowing of knowledge’ is no
longer enough to succeed in the increasingly complex, fluid, and rapidly evolving world in
which we live. In order to optimise life-long learning and potential success it is now widely
accepted that young people need to have opportunities to develop personal capabilities and
effective thinking skills as part of their well-rounded education.
This toolkit is not intended to be an exhaustive resource, but one which provides
practical advice to teachers on a varied range of methods which they may wish to integrate
into their daily learning and teaching activities. It is hoped that teachers will find it a helpful
tool in planning and creating a stimulating, enriching, challenging and focused environment
for both their pupils and themselves.
It is hoped that the collected methods and approaches will be dipped into and
developed according to the context of teaching and learning as a result of teacher-led
development work which is the way to foster
teacher leadership .
To select, use and develop active learning and teaching methods is not an easy task as
there is always a need for teacher to ask a lot of questions before implementing any activity
such as:
Is this activity
age-appropriate ?
What is the profile of the class e.g. mixed ability, size, sex etc.?
Are there any specific needs/circumstances of individual pupils that you need to take
into account?
In addition to the fact that before using particularly active learning and teaching method
teachers need to pose different questions, there is also a need for teacher’s constant reflection
on their role and behavior in the process.
Teacher-centred classroom
Learner-centred classroom
Teacher as a ‘transmitter of knowledge’
Teacher as an organizer of knowledge
Teacher as a ‘doer’ for children
Teachers as an ‘enabler’, facilitating
Pupils passive recipients of knowledge
Pupils are active and participatory learners
Pupils are focusing on answering questions
Pupils asking questions
Pupils are being ‘spoon fed’
Pupils taking responsibility for their own
learning - reflective learners
Pupils competing with one another
Pupils collaborating in their learning
Pupils wanting to have their own say
Pupils actively listening to opinions of others