Learning by Doing or Doing Without Learning? The Potentials and Challenges of Activity-Based Learning

Abstract Engaging learners in activities is an important instructional method. However, the learning-by-doing approach also poses some risks. By analyzing the differences between various types of learning activities, issues of activity-based learning are revealed and discussed. Activity-based learning can consist of relatively simple patterns of motor activity or may involve additional task-related knowledge, resulting in complex activities. Excessive movement or failure to properly integrate motor activity into a task can lead to problems for motor activity–based learning. Elaborate activities, such as letting learners generate drawings, can quickly evolve to secondary tasks in their own right. Demanding learning tasks can create their own cognitive load, resulting in less working memory capacity being available for engaging with the actual content. If activity-based interventions are to be used, as many redundant aspects as possible need to be avoided while providing additional guidance to learners. In addition, it is necessary to consider how task demands transform once tasks are shifted from the physical to the digital world in order to properly acknowledge potential increases in cognitive load. Taken together, this review connects educational and cognitive perspectives on activity-based learning to arrive at models and recommendations that are of high relevance for the digital transformation of education and learning.