Traditional teaching methods involve a teacher dispensing content from their chalkboard or whiteboard to a silent classroom. Active Learning allows the teacher to get on their students’ levels while educating. Students collaborate with each other and with their teacher to understand and retain class content.

Successful Active Learning requires an Active Learning Classroom, or ALC, to inspire the desire to learn classroom material. If your school is transitioning to this teaching method, use these secrets to design an effective Active Learning Classroom and set your teachers up for success in the next school year.

Incorporate the “4 C’s” of Active Learning

If a class will incorporate Active Learning, the teacher needs a classroom that satisfies all the needs of its principles. Active Learning doesn’t work in a traditional classroom with lines of desks facing the whiteboard.  Four concepts, known as the “4 C’s,” make up the basis of Active Learning. Consider the “4 C’s” as you strive for a successful ALC:

Collaboration

When students can collaborate in a classroom, they gain beneficial skills from working together to analyze material and find solutions. Consider using wheeled desks that can fit into shapes with any other desk in the room. Working in close proximity makes it easy to share information and dole out tasks.  Use configurable tables to inspire collaboration!

Communication

A classroom that allows students to communicate also teaches students how to express their opinions and listen to others. Students should feel safe asking questions and coming to solutions—they may find it easier to ask other peers than to ask the teacher. Whether they communicate in a forum or in their groups, make sure all students can communicate in a method they prefer.  Keep the conversation going with module seating!

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking in an ALC may require intense discussions, debates, and comparisons to allow students to figure out the “whys” of the problems they encounter. A student that understands why the solution is what it is has a higher chance of retaining that information.   Inspire students to understand the whys by keeping their devices charged with power towers!

Creativity

Creative thinking is integral to every classroom and subject. Students all have unique ways of thinking and can come to a solution differently. Your classroom must allow every student the tools to express their thoughts.   Students can express their creative solutions on a portable whiteboard!

Create a Flexible Layout

The final secret to designing an effective Active Learning Classroom is to allow teachers and students the opportunity to change the classroom layout in an instant. Modular  Active Learning Classroom furniture allows the classroom to take any shape that the lesson requires. Teachers won’t need to take time outside of class shoving heavy desks around the room if each desk has wheels and a light design.

Active Learning furniture comes in many shapes, sizes, colors, and designs to give your classrooms the creative layouts teachers need for their lesson plans. Martin Public Seating connects you to the best classroom furniture brands that design with active learning in mind. Create the ALC of your dreams with modern furniture that matches your teachers’ teaching methods.