Alaska Pacific University believes that the classroom should prepare students to go beyond the lecture hall and into the world. It is only when you try to make something happen, try to do something, that you realize how much more you need to know. An APU education alternates between the classroom and the real world, testing theory with practice.

At APU, we call this type of learning Active Learning, and it is this educational philosophy that guides our academic activities. Both inside and outside of the classroom, professors and students alike are engaged in the pursuit of Active Learning so that each student will become engaged in their own learning, and that professors will help students find their path and their passion, and lead them to what they need to know.

Students who are actively involved in their education retain more of what they learn than those who are taught in a more traditional manner. In fact, studies show that students who learn by the lecture-test model actually only retain about 8% of what they learn. At APU, our students retain much more, because they learn by doing, not just listening.

The principle of Active Learning is applied in a wide variety of academic settings at APU, but it can sometimes be difficult to define or identify. Many of the classes at the university are taught in an adventurous outdoor setting, where it is easy to see Active Learning taking place. Students who participate in classes such as Winter Wilderness Skills, or who attend block classes that take students into the Borneo rainforest to study ecology are actively and physically studying and learning about the world. In these classes students might conduct experiments in the field, learn backcountry rescue or teach Alaskan Natives, who live above the Arctic Circle, to read.

In a classroom setting Active Learning can take the form of "project-based education" in which students together or individually plan, carry out, evaluate and report on a project they have been assigned or have conceptualized themselves. That happens everyday in all types of classes at APU. Active Learning is a university wide goal, and that means that all classes, like writing, education, and psychology classes are taught with Active Learning in mind.

Active Learning at APU is a reportorial process beginning with Orientation to Active Learning, the first course that APU students take. The goal of the course is to provide a model of inquiry for students in the quest of knowledge and wisdom, and to further empower them as active learners. In their second year, students take Sophomore Seminar, which teaches them how a project is carried out in a specific discipline-their prospective major. In their third year, students who have now selected a major participate in the Junior Practicum, which is an internship or practicum that allows them to experience real-world issues. And finally, the process culminates in the twelve credit Senior Project, which is an action project of magnitude carried out by the student. Some recent senior projects include: Shawana Korreen Kinzer, Psychological Impacts and Violent Political Conflicts; Mark Daniel Allred, Cost of Living Analysis of Bush Alaska; Sherrie L. Soltis, Ascent to May: Climbing as a Metaphor For Life.

Each professor at APU addresses the idea of Active Learning differently-and some classes are more easily adapted to the goal than others. But, APU faculty is committed to the ideal of Active Learning and often meet to share their ideas about how to best apply active learning in their classes.

Ginger Golsan, PhD, Director of the Masters of Arts in Teaching program believes that "making learning authentic and in the context of the real world" is important to help students become self directed and active learners. Students who come to APU from a traditional based high school or transfer from another college sometimes have "preconceived notions about learning and may actually have to be taught how to become active learners," says Golsan.

One of the tools Dr. Golsan uses to help her students become active learners and teachers is an "Action Research Project." An Action Research Project is a tool to help students conduct self-study of their own teaching. They are taught to conduct a systematic inquiry of their own practices by using techniques such as videotaping, audiotaping, interviews, observations, peer review, and reflective journaling. MAT graduates often continue to use the Action Research model throughout their entire teaching careers. "This is my goal, to inspire a model for continued professional growth and development that can make sense to them as teachers," says Golsan. She agrees with John Dewey, "Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he or she is studying at the time. Collateral learning is the way of formation of enduring attitudes...For the attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future. The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning."

Dr. Marilyn Barry, is Chair of the Liberal Studies Department, and sees each new class as a new set of challenges. She says, "Active learning has to be structured" according to the topic, the students and the instructor. For example, Dr. Barry recently taught an Argumentative Writing class with the goal of "igniting the interest of the students." She knew that students would work harder if they "cared about their topics," so Dr. Barry devised a plan to get her students involved in the community. Each student was required to participate in a service-learning project, where they volunteered at Brother Francis Shelter, Covenant House, Food Bank of Alaska or other non-profits. The students were required to spend one class period a week at their service learning site and then to post writing journals about their learning on WebCT. (The topics for their formal papers were connected to the service learning.) Because of these activities, Dr. Barry believes that these "students became more engaged and thought more critically about their writing topics, thus becoming truly active learners."

At Alaska Pacific University it is our goal that every student in every class truly takes an active and deliberate responsibility for their own education and that they are engaged, self-directed and active learners. We hope that APU students dare to fly higher, light upon more destinations and shape a better life for themselves and the world in which they live.