**6. Contribution of active learning for empowerment**

of learning through experience [8]. Mickelson et al. [8] added that, during active learning as

Empowerment in the academic setting is the approach and practice of supporting learners to become able to shape their learning and study for a sustainable future. So, learner empowerment is giving more autonomy and ownership for the learners in their learning in the instructional process and ultimately produces an intrinsic desire to learn [19]. Learners become effective in their learning when they are empowered. Learners should be empowered for every activity in the instructional process. When learners are empowered, they become motivated, work harder, and strive for a better performance [20]. For this to happen, the role of the instructors involves guiding and facilitating rather than transmitting information to the learners. This means the instructor has to make the teaching-learning process more active

to constructivist theory, the students take control of their learning.

Furthermore, as to Schrodtet al. ([19], p. 184), empowered learners should:

**ii.** Feel a greater sense of self-efficacy in performing classroom tasks.

educational aspirations than students who were less empowered."

high-quality work (Glasser as cited in [22]).

motivation they should feel.

**i.** Be more likely to see the meaningfulness of the course content and activities.

**iii.** Be more likely to perceive that learning course content can have an impact.

In relation to this, Kirk et al. ([21], p. 589) found out "that highly empowered students reported better grades, fewer behavioral incidents, increased extracurricular participation and higher

Therefore, empowerment is a process enabling the learner to think, believe, and carry out an activity and criticize his/her own work and made decisions autonomously. Thomas and Velthos as cited in Frymier and Houser [22], empowerment consists of four dimensions:

• **Meaningfulness**—considers the value of tasks in relation to one's own beliefs, ideas, and standards. If the work is not meaningful, the students will not be motivated to generate

• **Competence**—means that the person feels qualified and capable to perform the necessary activities to achieve the goal. The feelings of empowerment are decreased when the indi-

• **Impact**—means that the accomplishment of a task is perceived to make a difference in the scheme of things. The more impact individuals believe they have, the more internal

• **Choice**—refers to the degree to which persons self-determine their task goals or methods for accomplishing them. This model predicted that great choice contributes to feelings of

vidual lack self-confidence in their skills and feel intimidated by the task or goal.

increased empowerment (Thomas and Velthouse as cited in [22]).

**5. Learner empowerment**

36 Active Learning - Beyond the Future

to empower the learners.

The active learning methods that the instructors are using in the classroom have huge contribution to the empowerment of learners. To empower students in their learning, instructors should apply multiple strategies in the classroom and in the field (practical sites). If the instructors use different strategies of active learning, the involvement of students in their learning becomes high, and there is a chance for the students to be proficient in their learning and real world of work. As to Bonwell and Eison [7], students' involvement in their learning can be further improved by the instructor's use of different active learning strategies. If the students are actively involved in active learning process using different strategies, they develop higher order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Therefore, these higher order thinking tasks increase the learner's creativity and make them empowered in their learning.

It is clear that learning can be empowering and active learners know this. They are used to succeed and praise for their accomplishments. However, there are a few students in every classroom who tend to learn differently than their most successful classmates [24]. In the instructional process, the instructors should give chance for learners to cooperate with each other using different strategies. The learner's cooperation in the learning process helps them to share their experiences and improve their learning. Active learning is contributed for the active participation of students in class discussions and to improve their understanding of class contents. In general, if active learning is properly implemented in the instructional process in higher learning institution and other education levels, it develops student's skills for critical thinking and increases their competency. Critical thinking is one of the skills in which student-centered learning promotes and this learning approach shifts the focus of power, in terms of what is learnt and how it is learnt, from the instructor to the student [25]. Therefore, the development of higher order thinking skills, critical thinking skills, creativity, and competency is the result of proper implementation of active learning, and this empowers student's learning and study.
