“If we believe in active student learning, we must consider the variety of ways in which students are encouraged to participate.”
Barrie Bennett & Peter Smilanich
The biggest challenge that teachers face in a classroom is to get undivided attention of students on the present topic. Sometimes few lessons are way too lengthy or even boring but they cannot be ditched no matter what. Earlier there was no way to replace boring classroom sessions with anything that was comparatively more interesting but now the times have changed!
Technology, innovation and strategic ideas have taken over most of the old rudimentary systems transforming them to match with the changing times. Same scenario goes with the world of education that is witnessing new trends with every passing day making it evolve to suit the needs of new generation students.
To promise one sure technique that can get you complete attention of your students might be a huge commitment. But, we can give you a list of strategies that can be used in different combinations to get the classroom result that you truly desire.
First step is to strategize a Strategy
The basic clue to carry out this initial step is to know what motivates your students. Take out some time and try to learn about every student of your class. You can also simplify your approach by creating an interesting quiz or a survey using online examination platform. This will let you design a unified strategy that will be based on a common point of interest for every student.
Add Technology to your Teaching style
We have moved quite far in the application of technology in our daily lives so it is quite acceptable if it takes over the major aspects of teaching too. Technology is an interesting way to get attention of your students as they respond well to stimulations that are a part of their regular activities. Making use of computers, ipad or tablets in the classroom increases student motivation, “studies have proved that students find learning more fun when it includes technology.”
Automate your Assessments
Replace old assessments techniques with that of new trend of online exam software. Formative assessments in the forms of quizzes and MCQs have started to become an important part of the main classroom curriculum so why not add a dash of creativity in it? By designing quizzes in a fun way and assigning them in classroom you automatically enhance student engagement.
The another side of the benefit of using online examination platform is that it is not just a boon in terms of student engagement but it is also a great way to reduce manual stress on teachers. Some of the best online assessment software available in the market are specially designed from the perspective of teachers. They come with advance reporting system and instant result generating features that are a complete blessing to teachers.
Communicate using visual aids
These days’ smartboards are getting highly preferred in the classroom setting because of their role in playing the best resource for visual aid in classroom. Ever noticed the wandering eyes of your students when giving verbal lectures? And how disinterested they seem when you are teaching various theories? All of these drawbacks get instantly eradicated by adopting the concept of visual teaching aid.
Integrate various teaching strategies
There are various teaching strategies that you can try, to facilitate active participation of your students in the class:
- Inquiry Teaching Strategy– Students are given a problem which they must solve by creating small helping groups who will participate together and research on the topic to find a possible solution to the problem.
- Cooperative Learning Strategy– Using various types of learning techniques that require cooperation such as think-pair-share and jigsaw puzzles are a nice way to instill group learning and problem solving nature in the students.
- Inductive Teaching Strategy– Students are provided with a concept on which they work alone and make observation which is later shared in the class and compared to other individual student’s observation.
- All of these strategies are basically designed with a view point to foster active participation and effective learning in the classroom environment.
Conclusion
How can we as teachers expect our new-gen students to adjust with old time learning and teaching methods? 21st century is all about changes that are technology based and education is a part of it. Right from creating innovative strategies to applying online examination platform in order to automate assessments, we have moved mountains in giving the best of educational environment to our new age students.