Active Alternatives

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

Hold the Fries

Baked, boiled, and mashed potatoes are better.

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Explore More From Current Issue

Illustration of Donald Trump and Alan Garber wearing boxing gloves, facing off beneath the quote: “The stakes are so high that we have no choice.”

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes.

a crowd of people dancing in a street

Latin dancing fills the streets in Harvard Square   

Nicolo Maestas in a grey suit and wearing glasses sits with her arms on a table

The Harvard health economist not afraid to get in the weeds