Modern pedagogical approaches

As we pointed out in the introduction, modern pedagogical approaches are based on an educational environment that is student-centred, knowledge-centred, and evaluation-centred.

Student-centred education is designed so that students are not just recipients of knowledge they receive from teachers, books and other sources of information. Active learning is an approach in which students are cognitively and socially engaged in the learning process rather than passively receiving information. Students actively participate and strive to understand, apply and evaluate knowledge through questioning, discussion and problem-solving. The key idea is that knowledge is constructed through action: the student explains phenomena in his or her own words, compares concepts and connects them to prior experience, thereby encoding what is learned more deeply and retaining it longer.

In practice, active learning is achieved through techniques such as "think-pair-share", short problem tasks, case studies, debate activities, guided experiments and reflective writing. Retrieval practice, spaced repetition and interleaving strategies also help, because they stimulate the effort to recall and transfer knowledge to new situations. Timely, targeted teacher feedback and peer evaluation further strengthen motivation and self-regulation.

For quality implementation, it is important to clearly formulate learning outcomes, set a meaningful challenge and provide a structure for the activity (time, roles, criteria). In an online environment, the same principles can be applied through micro-activities in forums, interactive quizzes, collaborative documents and short video assignments. Special attention should be paid to inclusiveness: enabling different ways of participation, building psychological safety in the classroom and balancing individual and team work, so that all students could actively participate and progress.

When designing with a modern pedagogical approach, the focus is on student activities. Not only what the student will hear and read, but also what activities will deepen their understanding, apply the acquired knowledge, and assess and evaluate the acquired knowledge.

The role of the teacher changes from a transmitter of knowledge to a leader of the learning process, the teacher guides the student with instructions for carrying out activities and provides feedback that encourages active learning.

Below, we will present teaching theories that are based on active learning.