Promoting Active Learning Through Warm-up Activities in Higher Education

This article investigates the role of active learning in higher education through the use of engaging warm-up activities and teachers’ perceptions thereof. Although the latest trends in tertiary education emphasize the importance of student-centered learning, university staff are reluctant to transition from a traditional to an active teaching and learning style (Børte et al., 2023). Warm-up activities promote active learning and have been widely used in English classes, but there is a lack of research into their usage in other subjects. A combination of a quantitative and qualitative study within the Exploratory Action Research approach was employed to analyze a) course instructors’ perceptions of utilizing warm-up activities in higher education courses across various disciplines, and b) the impact of organized training sessions on active learning on teachers’ perceptions and experience with warm-ups. 30 course instructors from 7 faculties at International Balkan University in Skopje participated in the study. Results indicate that the staff from the Faculty of Education are well acquainted with these types of class activities, and they are the ones who use them most frequently. Course instructors from other faculties lack pedagogical knowledge and thus prefer an individual and traditional approach to teaching. The training sessions proved to be effective for the academic staff, as they motivated them to include more warm-up activities and make their classes more student-centered. Therefore, universities should organize training sessions and provide continuous support at an institutional level for all academic staff to promote the use of active learning activities.