Passive Learning is where you receive educational information but do not have an exercise where you try to apply the lesson.
You could read a lot of facts about a period in history and even memorise them perfectly; but you could stil do badly in an exam because the score system expects you to present some of the facts only and penalises you for using more facts than were asked for. It is good to discover weakness in your exam answer before the exam by attempting example exam papers. By not just absorbing knowledge but actually using it, we see where the gaps are in our ability to apply the facts.
I think that the mind plays tricks on us and makes us think that we know a subject really well even though we would actually not do well in practice with the facts.
One reason for that is short term memory and a confidence that we know something even though we only really know it for the next hour or so.
Another reason is that there is a massive difference between reading a fact and thinking, "Yes, I know that" and actually being able to write that fact in the absence of the textbook. So you need exercises such as flash cards so that you can realise that something you think you know is not really known well.
Another problem is believing that you understand the steps of a procedure without actually carrying out the procedure by yourself. For instance, I just watched a YouTube tutorial on how to do an effect in my video editor; and I even made notes; but when I actually tried out the steps, I failed to make the effect happen. There was a subtlety that I had not noticed when I made my notes; only by trying out the steps could I discover that my notes needed to be more detailed.
A lot of learning, these days, is through video tutorials; and it is good in many ways but video is quite hard to navigate through when you want to revisit just one point from a 20 minute video (even with a transcript) - and I think that modern learning methods need to be mixed in with traditional note taking by you yourself. A video is a very passive way to learn and it can make you feel like you know something because it makes sense at the time that you watch it.
Another type of modern working is generative AI where I can prompt AI to write me an article of 500 words on the subject of 'Passive Learning' and then I can edit it to be the article that I want. But, the way I am writing this article right now is by spending time thinking about what I think should go in the article. Maybe I could use AI afterwards in case I have missed something basic but just using AI alone would surely not have written the points that I want to convey. Asking AI to do ALL of the design work is bad for my ability to think; I want my writing skills to be a fresh capability but I would become less capable if I handed over the job to AI. Also, I like being creative and I like thinking up things to say; so why would I hand my fun activity over to an AI?
Passively absorbing information is not all bad; I think that, when I watch foreign subtitles while an English tv show plays, it helps me to become comfortable with how a language tends to be spelled; and it helps me to revisit vocabulary; but I could never be capable speaking the language without exercises that actively require me to communicate what I want to ask or what I want to say; and I would need my ears to have practice listening to the language whereas I use English audio while the foreign subtitles play. In the evening, when my concentration is low, I do like watching tv like that because I don't have to try very hard.
Passive learning feels good because I feel like I am ticking the boxes of learning something. And the next level up requires effort and perhaps solving a puzzle: what practical exercises do I need in order for me to really know this material?
Motivation is so important - especially when some subjects are forced on us by a school curriculum, etc. and maybe we don't like the subject; or maybe we would love the subject if we could explore it at our own pace outside of a regimented education systen. For instance, I like history nowadays but it was a very dry subject at school. The motivation to do more than the bare minimum is important - especially now you see that 'passive learning' tricks us into thinking that we have done the bare minimum but really we might be far below the pass mark ability level.
The problem with motivation is that it has two faces: a goal to visualise that makes the hard work worth the effort; but also a contrasting visualised goal that involves not doing the extra effort. This could be visualisation of having a nice job because of exam success; and the contrast could be the visualising the near future pleasure of watching your favourite tv show.
And then there is the middle ground where relaxation with a tv show surely helps someone's mind to refresh so that someone can study better.