THE BARRIERS OF AN ACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL: EFL TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

Active learning provides students with self-confidence and builds their critical thinking in the discussion. This change provides numerous benefits for students learning English which are influenced by the academic lessons and their activeness in thinking. It requires students to engage directly by using critical thinking or higher levels of thinking such as analysis or synthesis. A qualitative study was employed. The participants were teachers and students in secondary school. The instrument was conducted in questionnaire forms and interviewed the students. The finding in this study appeared that barriers in active learning environments came up from student readiness, less motivation, students’ understanding, and students’ afraid. It showed that teachers needed to enhance the quality of the teaching and learning process to achieve students’ activeness.