First, students are engaged through activation of a schema. Basically, setting the stage for learning something new by invoking things they already know. Second, students do an experiment where they are allowed to “mess around” with a concrete phenomenon. Third, an extensive class or tutorial discussion or activity takes place where students attempt to make sense of what they’ve seen. This is the most critical stage, and must include scaffolding, guided questioning, modeling, shaping, concept mapping and so on. Finally, having developed a set of principles or a theory, students are made to apply the theory to a novel problem or situation. Some have formalized this learning cycle into four stages and an acronym: Activation (A; the set up), Concrete (C; the experiment), Invent (I; the discussion etc.), and Apply (A; the application to a novel problem); ACIA.
