Rune Iversen

Reflections on the use of Active Learning in archaeological teaching

Abstract
This project reflects on the use of active learning (including hands‐on exercises) in archaeological teaching. The basic principles behind active learning are student activity and engagement in the learning process. In this project, I use a course I thought in the fall semester 2016 (Archaeology, Period 3) as a case study. 40 % of the teaching hours was allocated to active learning activities defined as visits in the National Museum’s galleries, artefact demonstrations and excursions. The predominant activity was the artefact demonstrations, which took the form of hands‐on teaching in which the students approached real artefacts. The main reason for applying the hands‐on approach is the idea that it facilitates deep learning. Handling artefacts promotes curiosity leading to the formulation of questions about the objects, their use and meaning and to the formulation of approaches for answering these questions. If the students reach this stage in the learning process, they will be entering the quality‐learning phase following the SOLO taxonomy‐model. Based on students’ evaluations, active learning combined with lectures and students’ presentations constitute an ideal way of learning that promote engagement and deepened understanding, which makes the syllabus easier to comprehend