In a comment on this entry on active learning in large classes, Bill Tozier links to “a somewhat more ambitious program, which takes active learning principles in a more forcefully collaborative direction.” It’s worth reading–I can’t really figure out how to excerpt it, so you can just follow the link–the basic idea is that the students in his (hypothetical course) are required to collaborate on dozens of homework assignments throughout the semester. The hard part, I think, is coming up with that long list of homework assignments, but in any case I like the idea.
It also reminds me of the general principle that just about any teaching method (or, for that matter, research method) can work well, as long as (a) you put in the effort to do it right, and (b) keep in mind the ultimate goal, which is for the students to have certain skills and certain experiences by the time the class is over. Related to these is (c) the method should be appropriate for your own teaching style. Even old-fashioned blackboard lecturing is fine–if you can pull it off in a way that keeps the students’ brains engaged while you’re doing it. I developed a more active teaching style for myself because that was the only way I could keep the students thinking.
I'd like to remind that there are also different types of learners. Different studies list different number of types, but usual three main groups are: those who learn easily by 1) visually, 2) listening or 3) doing. Usually people use all these three ways to learn, but favor one of these.
I have noticed this also in practice. I teach a course on Bayesian modeling (based on the book "Bayesian data analysis") and I have asked the students why they do or don't attend the lectures. About half of the students don't come because they don't generally like listening lectures and prefer reading at their own pace. About half of the students listen lectures and say that they understand and remember things better than if they just read it. Note that I don't repeat what's on the book, instead I try give overview and bigger picture, so that after the lecture the book is more easily approachable. In addition there being different learners, teaching different things can benefit from different teaching techniques. For example, my students say that they learn and remember algorithms better when I show visual animated demonstrations of the algorithms. Some students who strongly prefer reading dislike many active learning group teaching methods, since they want to set their own pace. So, I'll try to take into account different learning methods and use different teaching methods: text (the book, my additional comments), lectures with demonstrations (code available for students), computer exercises and collaboration (voluntarily in pairs). When I had just 20 students on that course I also used learning diary once. Learning diary is excellent in activation, but that took very much time. This fall I have 70 students, so I don't have much time per student, so most of the activation comes through exercises.