"Active learning." A phrase that either inspires you to plan a 'gold plated' lesson filled with buzzwords and a buzzy atmosphere or else it sends your eyes rolling to the sky and fills you with an inexplicable tiredness. For a time, I thought Active Learning was what they did in PE. Or perhaps in drama or any subject that required students to be, well, active! Even when my understanding developed past that initial misjudgement, I still thought active learning was about getting to kids up out of their seats.  I'm great at active learning, I thought. My kids get up and write on the board! They go around the class room, books and pens clasped in hands as they find the strategically placed information points I've blu-tacked to the wall! Never mind that it would be far quicker for them to have the information on the board or printed in advance, ready for them to summarise in their own words. Nope, better they be up and about; active! It was only when I began study...