Module 3: Preparing to Facilitate Active Learning

On this page:

Working with Your Teaching Team and Students
Preparing Your Teaching Team
Preparing Your Students
Pause for Workbook Activity: Communication Plan

Working with Your Teaching Team and Students

Active learning doesn't happen in isolation—it relies on the people in your teaching and learning contexts. Preparing your teaching team (e.g., TAs, co-instructors) and your students is essential to making active learning successful. Clear communication about roles, expectations, and purpose helps ensure that everyone is ready to participate and support one another.

Students engage more deeply when they understand why active learning is being used (Deslauriers et al., 2019) and when instructors set transparent expectations (Barkley & Major, 2022). Similarly, teaching teams are more effective when their roles are clearly defined and practiced before class (Zakrajsek & Nilson, 2023).

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Preparing Your Teaching Team

In many contexts, active learning relies on a team of instructors, teaching assistants (TAs), or co‑instructors. The more your team understands your goals and how to facilitate activities, the more consistent and supportive the student experience will be. Preparing your team involves clarifying roles, reserving time to plan together, modelling activities, aligning communication and philosophies, and building trust and confidence.

Alongside the guidance you provide, TAs at U of T have access to training that can strengthen their capacity to support active learning. Encourage your TAs to participate in the Teaching Assistants' Training Program (TATP) and point them toward additional training opportunities, such as AODA compliance, sexual violence prevention, and supporting students in distress. For further guidance on TA roles, responsibilities, and development, visit CTSI's Working with Your TAs page.

Reserve Time and Clarify Roles

Set aside time to plan and reflect with your team. Assign specific responsibilities such as facilitating small‑group discussions, troubleshooting technology, or collecting feedback.

Life sciences example: Lab TAs circulate to guide groups through experiments and check safety protocols.
Engineering example: TAs support design teams by asking guiding questions rather than providing solutions.
Co‑instructors (simultaneous): In a large lecture, one instructor leads an activity while the other monitors chat or circulates to answer questions.
Co‑instructors (non‑simultaneous): When instructors alternate weeks or topics, they align on activity instructions and expectations in advance so that students experience consistency across sessions.

Align Communication and Philosophies

Ensure consistency in how instructors, TAs, and co‑instructors explain activities, expectations, and feedback. This also means discussing your teaching philosophies early, planning together, and being explicit with students about your shared approach.

Social sciences example: In a sociology course, TAs practice using the same discussion prompts and criteria to assess small-group work.
Physical sciences example: In a physics lecture with multiple instructors, the teaching team agrees on shared polling prompts and solution explanations to avoid mixed messages.
Arts example: In a studio course, co‑instructors align on how critique language is framed, so feedback across sessions is consistent and constructive.

Build Trust and Confidence

Provide your teaching team with the tools and resources they need to guide students effectively, while also fostering an environment of parity where contributions are equally valued.

Professional programs example: In a business seminar, TAs use case study rubrics to facilitate peer review and ensure consistency across sections.
Arts example: In a studio course, TAs receive a critique framework to guide peer feedback discussions.
Life sciences example: Lab TAs receive a troubleshooting guide for common experimental errors so they feel prepared to step in when students struggle.
Co‑instructors: Instructors who alternate teaching weeks review each other's slides, prompts, and rubrics in advance to build shared confidence in activity delivery.

Model Activities

Walk through an activity with your teaching team so they know what it feels like from a student's perspective.

Humanities example: In a history tutorial, the TA role plays a discussion leader using primary source questions.
Professional programs example: In a nursing course, the lead instructor and TA run a short case‑based role play together before class to model expectations.
Co‑instructors: Two instructors teaching different sessions practice delivering the same clicker question debrief to ensure students receive consistent framing.

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UDL Scaffolds to Consider

When preparing your teaching team for active learning, ask yourself:

Access: Do all team members have the resources they need in usable formats (e.g., written activity guides, shared slides, clear room technology instructions)?
Support: Have you scaffolded their roles with prompts, rubrics, or checklists so they feel confident facilitating?
Executive Function: Have you provided predictable structures (e.g., a consistent activity script, clear timelines, or communication channels) to help your team stay coordinated?

scaffolds

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Preparing Your Students

Just as your teaching team benefits from clarity, your students also need preparation and transparency to succeed in active learning. Many may be unfamiliar with active approaches or hold assumptions about what "real teaching" should look like. Taking time to prepare them—by explaining your rationale, modelling what participation looks like, and setting clear expectations—helps build trust and buy‑in so students can engage with confidence.

Explain the Why

Share research and your own teaching philosophy to help students understand why you use active learning. Studies highlight that being transparent about the purpose of active learning is one of the most effective ways to reduce student resistance (Finelli et al., 2018; Tharayil et al., 2018).

Physical sciences example: A physics instructor shows polling data from previous classes to demonstrate how peer instruction improves problem-solving accuracy.
Social sciences example: A political science instructor explains that small‑group discussion helps students practice the same skills needed for policy analysis.
Co‑instructors: Two instructors alternating weeks share the same "why" message in week one, so students hear consistent reasoning regardless of who is teaching.

Conduct an Access Check

Invite students to identify potential barriers that could affect their ability to participate fully, and proactively address them. Access checks reinforce that learner variability is expected and normal, and they connect directly to Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Social sciences example: A sociology instructor uses an anonymous survey in week one to ask about internet access, device availability, and schedule constraints.
Arts example: A studio instructor asks students to share (anonymously, if preferred) what helps them feel comfortable presenting work in front of peers.
Professional programs example: A nursing instructor runs a short poll on what kinds of group structures (e.g., assigned vs. chosen roles) help students participate effectively.

Co‑create Norms

Invite students to help establish community agreements around participation, communication, and collaboration (e.g., turn‑taking signals, group roles, respectful dialogue). Co‑creating norms builds ownership and trust, and it signals that active learning is a shared process rather than something imposed.

Humanities example: In a seminar, students co‑develop a list of discussion guidelines (e.g., "step up, step back") during the first week of class.
Life sciences example: A biology instructor asks lab groups to agree on shared responsibilities for lab prep, clean‑up, and data sharing.
Professional programs example: In a business course, students collaboratively draft a short "team charter" outlining how they will handle deadlines and disagreements.
Co‑instructors: When multiple instructors alternate weeks, they use the same community agreement to give students consistency across sessions.

Set Transparent Expectations

Be clear about how active learning connects to course outcomes and assessments.

Professional programs example: In a nursing course, students receive a handout outlining how role-play exercises develop clinical reasoning skills that are graded later.
Arts example: A studio instructor explains how peer critique activities map onto the criteria for final projects.
Social sciences example: A sociology instructor shows how discussion contributions will be captured in a participation rubric.
Co‑instructors: Instructors teaching different sessions agree to post identical expectation slides in Quercus to reinforce consistency.

Model Participation

Demonstrate how activities work, showing both the process and the expected outcome.

Life sciences example: A biology instructor runs through a mock clicker question and peer discussion before the first real attempt.
Humanities example: An English instructor models annotating a poem, then invites students to try in pairs.
Professional programs example: In law, the instructor and TA enact a short moot‑court exchange to illustrate role‑play expectations.
Co‑instructors: When both instructors are present, one can model a "student role" while the other facilitates, then switch for variety.

Provide Choice

Where possible, allow students to contribute in different ways (e.g., writing, speaking, using digital tools). Offering flexibility is especially supportive for neurodivergent students, who may find traditional group work settings restrictive or exclusionary (Salvatore, White, & Podowitz‑Thomas, 2024).

Arts example: In a studio class, students choose whether to present a visual work, write a short reflection, or record an audio commentary for critique.
Life sciences example: A biology course offers participation via oral lab reports, written reflections, or posting questions in Quercus.
Social sciences example: A political science instructor gives students the option of posting weekly discussion points online or raising them in class.
Co‑instructors: When instructors alternate sessions, both commit to offering similar modes of choice so students don't experience inconsistency.

Normalize Struggle

Remind students that confusion and debate are part of the learning process.

Humanities example: An English literature instructor acknowledges that multiple interpretations of a text are expected, not errors.
Physical sciences example: A chemistry instructor tells students that needing two or three attempts on a problem is normal in professional practice.
Music example: A music instructor explains that mistakes and re‑starts during rehearsal are a natural part of developing technique and interpretation.

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UDL Scaffolds to Consider

When preparing your students for active learning, ask yourself:

Access: Do all students have a way to participate (e.g., polling, written contributions, verbal sharing)?
Support: Are there clear instructions, prompts, or roles so no one is left guessing what to do?
Executive Function: Are norms and expectations predictable, so students can plan how to engage?

scaffolds

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Pause for Workbook Activity: Communication Plan

In your ALDF Workbook docx, draft a short plan for how you will prepare both your teaching team and your students for the active learning method you planned earlier. Use the table provided to map out your approach.

My Active Learning Communication Plan
Prompts	My Notes
What roles will my teaching team have?	[My notes]
How will I align communication and expectations with my teaching team?	[My notes]
How will I build trust and confidence in my teaching team's ability to support students?	[My notes]
How will I explain the purpose of active learning to my students?	[My notes]
What expectations will I set for participation?	[My notes]
How will I prepare students through modelling or co‑created norms?	[My notes]
What supports or choices will I provide to welcome learner variability?	[My notes]

As you draft your communication plan, draw on the barriers and strategies for welcoming learner variability that you identified in Module 2.

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University of Toronto, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation