EdTech, Skills & The Future of Work Series: Active Learning & Learning Strategies
Teachers are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to reshape their classroom and one of the biggest challenges they face is to inspire their students to learn more and be better. Their continuous endeavor is met with the aim of making their students rise above and beyond to carve great careers for themselves. In this context, the World Economic Forum has come up with a list of top ten skills that young students will need, to get jobs by the year 2025. One of the skills listed in the study is Active Learning Strategies.
Active learning is a skill that a child possesses from the very beginning, and as a teacher, you only need to build on it.
It pushes the student towards deeper learning which is what will come in handy in the future when they leave the nest to build a life of their own. It also instills confidence in them, makes them more professionally able, and modifies them from being passive listeners to more involved and active learners. This in turn helps them understand the concepts better and takes them away from the traditional teaching methods that can make learning monotonous and dull. Typically, it is done in smaller groups to understand the reaction, judge responsiveness, provide effective feedback and monitor growth among the students.
Here is a four-step guide to help you inculcate active planning at the center of your teaching techniques:
Observation
For students to be actively involved in the learning process, it is imperative that they have their own views and outlook on the world. Facilitate this by having in-depth discussions. Utilize the Google Meets Breakout Rooms to divide your classroom into smaller sections and create daily goals for each group. Let them discuss their views while you moderate these sessions by switching between the rooms.
Planning
Let your students be actively engaged in planning the curriculum for the day. Encourage them to share the topic they would want to discuss in the class. Create small polls or surveys using Google Forms and let the students come up with the topics that interest them the most.
This will help them think better and be more proactively involved in class discussions. Let them be at the center of planning so they feel more involved.
Preparation
Give them the freedom to get out of their comfort zones and let them deal with situations that can help them become a tougher person in the future. The more adaptive they are to changes at a young and influential age, the easier it will be for them to deal with unpleasant situations in the future.
Role-playing based on real-life situations is one activity that can be explored. Give them situations like getting ready for school or going to the playground and assign them different roles. Let them act out their parts over a virtual session. Using your screens as a digital whiteboard, pose an open-ended question at the end of the activity and watch them come up with innovative answers.
This activity will push them to think on their feet, be quick with responses and become fast learners.
Implementing
Using the Share Screen feature in Google Meets, encourage students to get into reciprocal discussions and share their findings with their peers. Game-based learning is another way to go about it. Use platforms like Gamoteca or Gimkit that allow you to create subject-specific games which makes the process of implementation of knowledge and feedback fun and engaging.
Active learning is all about broadening the child’s perspective and pushing him/her to let their imagination fly. Treat them as ‘young adults’ and involve them in the learning process. This will improve their retention power, critical thinking abilities, and their concentration. Let’s strengthen them today to give them a more secure tomorrow.