Education today centres upon encouraging students to take an active part in their learning and to awaken their curiosity and desire to learn more. Here are 6 teaching methods that aim to achieve just that.
Learning continues to evolve so that it can meet student needs, and those needs are constantly changing.But with technology now playing a major part in students' lives, there is a world of resources at their fingertips that can facilitate progress by giving students greater control over their learning.The role of the teacher in ensuring that this happens is critical, as they must decide how best to implement new technologies in order to maximise their effectiveness.To give you an idea of how some teachers are doing this, here is a list of teaching methods that use technology to support student learning.
The Flipped Classroom Model basically involves encouraging students to prepare for the lesson before class. Thus, the class becomes a dynamic environment in which students elaborate on what they have already studied. Students prepare a topic at home so that the class the next day can be devoted to answering any questions they have about the topic. This allows students to go beyond their normal boundaries and explore their natural curiosity.GoConqr's free online learning tools can be integrated into the Flipped Classroom teaching model. Using GoConqr, you can easily share resources with a group, in this case a class, allowing students to study these resources from home and prepare for the next class.
This technique is based on resolving real-life cases through group analysis, brainstorming, innovation and creative ideas. Although
“Design Thinking” is a structured method, in practice it can be quite
messy as some cases may have no possible solution.
However, the Case Method prepares
students for the real world and arouses their curiosity, analytical
skills and creativity. This technique is often used in popular MBA or
Masters classes to analyze real cases experienced by companies in the
past.
Caption: : Design Thinking is a cyclical process that allows you to solve complex problems in a creative way.
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3. Self-Learning
Curiosity is the main driver of learning. As a basic
principle of learning, it makes little sense to force students to
memorize large reams of text that they will either begrudgingly recall
or instantly forget. The key is to let students focus on exploring an
area which interests them and learn about it for themselves.A common technique for exploring self-learning is the use of Mind Maps. Teachers can create a central node on a Mind Map and allow students the freedom to expand and develop ideas.
By using games, students learn without even realizing. Therefore, learning through play or "Gamification'" is a learning technique that can be very effective at any age. It is also a very useful technique to keep students motivated.The teacher should design projects that are appropriate for their
students, taking into account their age and knowledge, while making them
attractive enough to provide extra motivation. One idea may be to
encourage students to create quizzes online
on a certain topic. Students can challenge their peers to test
themselves and see who gets a higher score. In this way, students can
enjoy the competition with peers while also having fun and learning.
There is an array of free online
learning tools available which teachers can use to encourage engagement,
participation and a sense of fun into the classroom. Teachers can
create an interactive and dynamic classroom environment using, for
example, online quizzes to test student’s knowledge.
With GoConqr’s free online learning tools you can create Mind Maps, Flashcards, Quizzes, Slide decks and Notes.The GoConqr Groups function allows student to share, discuss and collaborate on projects. Simply create a group and invite each of your students to become a member. This means you can
share study resources directly with each student online and even apply
the Flipped Classroom Model to your method of teaching.
A variant of the previous section is to utilize social media in the classroom. Students today are always connected to their social network and so will need little motivation
to get them engaged with social media in the classroom.The ways you
can use this method of teaching are quite varied as there are hundreds
of social networks and possibilities. Encourage students to get creative and then share their creations online.Like GoConqr's Groups feature, social media gives teachers the opportunity to play an active part in setting up online learning communities for their students, thereby giving them a chance to connect with others beyond the classroom.
