Examples of Active Learning In the Harvard Curriculum

Examples of active learning abound in the Harvard curriculum.

Return to main article:

Harvard offers a panoply of “active learning” opportunities in its various faculties. The new Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching (see “Investing in Learning and Teaching,” January-February) will stimulate a wide range of ventures and explorations in this and other areas, which have already begun.

Examples of active learning abound in the curriculum. Here are three:

At Harvard Business School, the Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) program in January sent the entire first-year class of 900 M.B.A. students abroad to placements with multinational or local companies. Working in small teams with a faculty adviser, the students were assigned to analyze a new product or service the company might introduce in the country visited—a hands-on immersion that goes beyond the school’s traditional classroom case-based method of teaching (see “Educating Business Leaders for a Global Century,” September-October 2011 and “Into India” from March-April 2012).

The General Education course United States in the World 24: “Reinventing Boston: The Changing American City,” taught by Ford professor of the social sciences Robert Sampson, requires students to make three visits to Boston neighborhoods and write descriptive accounts of their observations and experiences. It embodies a specific form of active learning known as “activity-based learning” (ABL) in which students do public service, fieldwork, community-based research, and internships, then connect their real-world exploits with academics (see “Out of Cambridge,” January-February).

Elise Morrison, an associate director of the Bok Center with a Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies, teaches Expository Writing 40: Public Speaking Practicum. Each class member delivers five speeches during the semester, on topics progressing through a gradient of difficulty, starting with a self-introduction and climaxing with an attempt to persuade the audience of something that it disagrees with. Video recordings and feedback from both Morrison and fellow students focus on the speaker’s unconscious habits and their communicative consequences.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Human Impact On New England Ecology Was Minimal before Europeans Arrived

Before Europeans arrived in New England, local ecology was driven by climate shifts, not by human interventions.

This Harvard Scientist Is Changing the Future of Genetic Diseases

David Liu has pioneered breakthroughs in gene editing, creating new therapies that may lead to cures.

Explore More From Current Issue

Man, standing in small group of people outside the courthouse, holding a sign that reads "HANDS OFF HARVARD" in red letters

Harvard’s Summer In Court

What Columbia’s settlement means for the University

Will Makris in blue checkered suit and red patterned tie standing outdoors by stone column.

A New Haa President at a Tumultuous Time

A career in higher ed inspired Will Makris to give back.

Room filled with furniture made from tightly rolled newspaper sheets.

A Paper House In Massachusetts

The 1920s Rockport cottage reflects resourceful ingenuity.