The Illusion of Learning

The opportunities for learning beyond the classroom or desktop screen are immense. Whether we are consuming podcasts on the morning train or queuing YouTube videos on our TVs at night, the way we learn is shifting. Yet with so much consumption of information, why does it feel like we are struggling to retain much of what we learn?

The passive approach

Whether it is memories of first period maths or your morning commute, we are all intimately familiar with passive learning. In this approach, students absorb information without actively engaging with it – no problem-solving, testing or application. It means we become passive recipients of knowledge rather than an active participant in its construction.

And it's no surprise it feels comforting – it is the way mainstream education has taught us how to learn for decades. It is an efficient way to deliver large amounts of information with minimal disruptions.

The alternative

An alternative approach is active learning. In active learning, the learner becomes engaged in a much deeper way – analysing, problem solving and replaying their understanding of the material rather than just its absorption.

In active learning, students might be asked to:

• Create new sentences using recently acquired vocab

• Replay what they have learned back to the class

• Pair program with other developers to ensure a mutual understanding of the topic

Active learning is much more of a dance between parties – ideas and information exchanged between teacher and student, student and student. It shifts the focus from the teacher as the dispenser of knowledge to the student as a willing and engaged co-creator.

The great learning paradox

Despite strong evidence supporting active learning, there has been little shift to more active styles of teaching in formal education and researchers wanted to know why.

A landmark study in 2019 by Deslauriers et al, investigated this disconnection by comparing both active and passive methods in college physics classes over two weeks. Students were randomly assigned to groups, experiencing both teaching methods (active for one topic, passive for another) from different instructors.

After each class, they completed surveys on their perceptions and "feelings of learning" (FOL), followed by a multiple-choice test of actual learning (TOL). The goal was to see how perceived learning differed from actual learning between the two instructional styles.

What they discovered

The study found that active learning leads to significantly higher actual learning outcomes compared to passive lectures. This means students understood and retained more information through active instruction.

What the researchers didn't expect to find was that students in active classrooms consistently reported a lower "feeling of learning" and preferred the passive lecture approach.

The study proposed three reasons for the gap between perceived and actual learning:

1. Fluency misconception: Many students equated the 'flow' of a lecture with a higher degree of learning. Passive lectures by their nature have a high level of fluency – few interruptions, a highly polished presentation style, expert level knowledge of the subject.

2. Poor metacognition in novices: New students to a subject often lack the ability to gauge how much they've understood of a new topic.

3. Misinterpretation of cognitive effort: Active learning by its nature requires a higher level of learning and effort. As a result, students may feel more awkward or frustrated as they grapple with new problems. Many may interpret this as a sign of poor or unenjoyable learning.

What this means for us

The study shines a light on powerful truths for all teachers and students: the more active the process, the better the outcomes.

With so much content consumption wedged into every spare minute of our lives, some argue it might be doing more harm than good – or at the very least, falling short of its potential.

If we are to continue learning in our spare time, it is imperative that we ask ourselves difficult questions to understand our motivations:

• what do I want to learn and why?

• what can I reasonably achieve in the timeframe?

• how can I set better boundaries between study and down time?

• are there more efficient ways to learn? (e.g. study groups, 1-on-1 instruction)

Asking these questions honestly could clear the path to more intentional, effective lifelong learning.