Preface

Nowadays, critical thinking and decision-making skills are paramount, as people are often confronted with outdated approaches, injustices, and conservatism in addressing many important issues. People need to be able to stand for positive change. The educational process plays a significant role in the formation of personality characteristics. It is in the process of learning that self-esteem, tolerance, independence, responsibility, and the ability to discuss and defend one's beliefs develop. Thus, how we teach is just as important as why we teach. With the help of teaching methods like active learning, one can simulate behavior aimed at advocating for change.

Numerous studies show that teaching children and adults is more effective and more enjoyable when it is active. Democratic education helps students to improve and systematize their knowledge and skills, activate their own experience, and develop thinking, memory, attention, imagination, and a positive attitude about the learning process.

In a person-centered team, teachers constantly make decisions, work with other adults and children to create a developmental environment, respect children's opinions and choices, and enable children to develop the skills that will be the foundation of their future success.

The use of active learning methods is extremely important because they have a great impact on students, their acquisition of knowledge, and the development of personal qualities. Some studies show that adult learners prefer active learning methods as well. Others emphasize that in terms of assessing active learning methods and traditional lectures, the success rates of students' learning are commensurate, but the rates of mastering new skills are much greater than those achieved after a course of regular lectures. Studies have also shown that a significant number of adults with different individual learning styles learn more effectively using active learning methods. For teachers, how much a person knows is important, but so is how much they have learned while learning and how they will use the knowledge gained. Thus, a thoughtful approach to the use of active learning methods includes engaging students and teachers in the practice of self-reflection and understanding how adult learners learn most effectively.

#### **Olena Lutsenko**

Candidate of Biological Sciences, Department of Theory and Methods of Teaching Natural Sciences, Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, Hlukhiv, Ukraine

#### **Gregory Lutsenko**

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Education Management, Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, Hlukhiv, Ukraine

### **Chapter 1**
