Making Students’ Thinking Visible During Active Learning

Active learning has grown in importance in pharmacy education over the years as seen with its emphasis in the previous and current Doctor of Pharmacy Program Accreditation Standards.1,2 Searching the term “active learning” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education resulted in 1,617 articles related to active learning techniques such as audience response systems, case-based teaching, and team-based learning.3-7 Stewart and colleagues in 2011 reported that 87% of respondents from US colleges and schools of pharmacy use active learning techniques in their classroom.8 This data,8 which resulted from a survey with a response rate of 95%, suggests that faculty members have taken the first step and have selected and incorporated active learning techniques to increase students’ engagement in the classroom