Rich Environments for Active Learning include the following characteristics:
- Authentic Learning occurs when students learn through participating in activities that solve real life
problems or create products that have real life purposes.
- Collaborative Learning requires students and instructors to work together to complete a task,
accomplish a goal, and reach a shared objective.
- Generative Learning occurs when students are given an open-ended problem and are asked to
identify sub-problems, create theories to solve the sub-problems, and test and refine their theories.
- Intentional Learning allows students to establish their own goals and the strategies to achieve their
goals.
- Reflection requires introspection and interpretation of what is learned as well as the learning process.
One fundamental part of any Trails to Literacy project is its learner-centred approach. It is
important to design a literacy program that is practical, useful and relevant to the
participant(s). When doing research into the theory of learner-centred approaches we
come across a number of learning deliveries which are relative to Trails projects: Collaborative,
Authentic, Participatory, Intentional, Generative, Contextual, etc. Some of these
overlap in their philosophy and some, in their truest state, would not be applicable, yet all have
value to consider. Perhaps the most unique to Trails are the first four Collaborative,
Authentic and Participatory and Intentional.
