Running Head: ARTICLE REVIEW 3 1

Challenges and Strategies in Handling Active Learning Classroom:

Article Review 3

Stephani Anugrahman

Universitas Pelita Harapan

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Summary

Active learning classrooms (ALCs) is different from a traditional class, ALC is

designed to enhance small group student-student interaction and student-instructor

interaction. The classroom contains of some tables where students can sit in a circle, facing

each other. The instructor or the teacher will just stand in the middle of the room with a

podium and ask the students to pay attention on the screen or technology that the teacher

used.

Clearly from a brief description of ALC above, there are some challenges that both

students and teacher face in this type of class. The author divides these challenges into two

categories, challenges due to the physical arrangement of the room and challenges due to

teaching roles. The challenges that both parties will face due to the physical arrangement are,

first, no focal point, obviously because students are scattered in the classroom. This challenge

brings us to the second challenge which is there will be multiple distractions because it will

be harder for the teacher to control what the students are doing and they tend to get distracted

by all the technology that the classroom provides. Thirdly is overwhelming technology means

feeling overwhelmed by the technology of the space, too many technologies until you

could not even handle it.

Meanwhile the challenges that both party will face due to changes in teaching roles

are first, teacher is no longer the focal point because everything are provided in the

technology they uses. Secondly, students cannot hide from each other means that those who

prefer to be passive and just listening will not get a chance to learn more because the class

force them to be active. Lastly, the student will lose the opportunity to interact with the whole

class because they were designed to sit with their small groups.

As its conclusion, the article provides some recommendations for teaching in ALCs

like design the activities and all the tools that the teacher will use that will meet the learning
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outcomes, communicates the teachers expectations to the students, and direct students

attention during the class.

Evaluation and Reflection

I fully agree with the article and I did not see any distortion in this article. However,

the method that the article mentioned will not be able to be applied in primary school. For

higher level like High School and college, this classroom method might be effective. As we

can see ALC is very student-minded, which means students play an important role in the

learning process. Primary students will not be able to discuss or come up with ideas, like

what ALC is aiming for, without teachers guidance. Meanwhile in ALC, teachers role are

only monitoring the learning activities and answering students questions, not fully explaining

the lesson in details.

Before I went to ITC, I had ever joined an ALC in my previous university. It was an

art university and the subject is Creative Thinking, where the teacher grouped us into several

groups and let us shared each other knowledge regarding the topic that the teacher brought in

class. Sometimes the teacher asked us to bring some art materials to deal with some study

cases that needed creative thinking. Those challenges that the article mentioned were really

happened in this class. Art material was a huge distraction for all of the young artists like us.

Therefore, we tended to play with the art materials during teachers explanation. My teacher

realized this problem and on the next class, she did not ask us to bring our own material,

instead she provided them and gave us thes material after she explained the lesson.

Both the article and my experience made me interested to apply it in my future class if

I have a chance to teach higher grades like Secondary School especially in the subject like art

and music. It will be more fun if the students are able to interact with each other and learn

from each others knowledge and background. Because it will also train them as God created

them with wisdom and knowledge to solve everyday problems and learning something new
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from an interaction with each other. Like what Proverbs 27:17 says, As iron sharpens iron,

so one person sharpens another.

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Work Cited

Petersen, C. I., & Gorman, K. S. (2014). Strategies to Address Common Challenges When

Teaching in an Active Learning Classroom. New Directions For Teaching &

Learning, 2014(137), 63-70. doi:10.1002/tl.20086