Active learning strategies...not for the birds!

Nursing students historically have struggled to learn a large amount of content in a short period of time. Reliance on intense memorization of endless facts from multiple textbook chapters is ineffective, exhausting, and generally does not result in knowledge retention. Nursing educators face the challenge of facilitating learning that promotes critical thinking through the use of strategies that actively engage the students. Creating an environment of learning where students come prepared to class and use the textbook material to enhance understanding and knowledge acquisition is imperative. This article presents active learning strategies that are flexible for varying class sizes, time availability, and topics. Classroom assessment techniques support the value of this teaching-learning approach.