Classroom innovation
Collaborative learning helps improve social interaction skills, greater acceptance of others, and a greater sense of "community" in the class
The 21st century with its revolutionary changes in information and
communication technology has put new pressures on the higher education
system for the development of special skills and competencies among
students. The Indian higher education system is one of the largest with respect
to student enrolment, next only to China and the US. While the last three
decades have seen a huge increase in the provision of higher education in
India, the quality of education imparted by our colleges and universities has
often been a matter of concern.
Behaviorism is the predominant theory on which most of the teaching and learning processes have been based since the 1960s. Its basic premise is that behaviour can be predicted and controlled and if teachers provided the correct stimuli, students will learn. However, after years of implementation, behaviorism could not produce the desired effects within the complex context of the classroom and teachers were also left feeling cheated by a system that blamed them for students' failure to learn.
Behaviorism is the predominant theory on which most of the teaching and learning processes have been based since the 1960s. Its basic premise is that behaviour can be predicted and controlled and if teachers provided the correct stimuli, students will learn. However, after years of implementation, behaviorism could not produce the desired effects within the complex context of the classroom and teachers were also left feeling cheated by a system that blamed them for students' failure to learn.
Following vast research on different strategies of imparting knowledge,
constructivism has emerged as the largely accepted theory of learning.
According to the constructivist theory students learn from being active
learners in collaborative settings and from constructing ideas and concepts
based on their prior knowledge and experiences. Constructivist theory places
the student at the center of the learning experience and focuses on knowledge
construction, not reproduction. Whereas in traditional classrooms knowledge is
inert, in a constructivist classroom it is an active and interactive process.
In the traditional mode of instruction, student concentration is found to decline after 10-15 minutes during lectures and class participation is often unbalanced in favor of the most knowledgeable students who are most willing to respond in front of their peers. One of the core strategies in constructivist classrooms is to promote student participation and collaborative learning. Students assist each other in understanding content and this helps broaden their perspectives on issues or problems. This also increases student retention and limits anxiety. Collaborative learning provides for improvement of social interaction skills, greater acceptance of others, and a greater sense of "community" in the class. This also develops confidence, respect for others, etiquettes and social skills among learners. This is particularly true for college goers.
In the traditional mode of instruction, student concentration is found to decline after 10-15 minutes during lectures and class participation is often unbalanced in favor of the most knowledgeable students who are most willing to respond in front of their peers. One of the core strategies in constructivist classrooms is to promote student participation and collaborative learning. Students assist each other in understanding content and this helps broaden their perspectives on issues or problems. This also increases student retention and limits anxiety. Collaborative learning provides for improvement of social interaction skills, greater acceptance of others, and a greater sense of "community" in the class. This also develops confidence, respect for others, etiquettes and social skills among learners. This is particularly true for college goers.
Some collaborative activities that can be done in the classroom are: (1)
Experimentation where students individually perform an experiment and then come
together as a class to discuss the results; (2) Field trips by students that
allow them to put the concepts and ideas discussed in class in a real-world
context; (3) Working together on research projects in which students research a
topic in groups of two-four and then present their findings to the class; (4)
Making or editing films and then presenting and discussing them to provide an
audio-visual dimension into the learning experience.
As the world moves towards digital media, e-learning
tools are also getting integrated in the education process. The students
can not only exchange their thoughts and information over email and by
connecting in chat rooms; they can collaborate effectively and with the use of
tools like Google Docs and Wikis supports both faculty and student needs in
terms of greater flexibility, convenience and increased efficiency. These
online collaborative tools provide scope for communication and interaction
through synchronous and asynchronous exchange of materials that are rich in
media and varied in format. Learner interaction can be heightened with the use
of internet-enabled smartphones, tablets and laptops.
As we look at ways to dramatically enhance education in this millennium, we must engage our students in ways that make them capable of dealing with complex problems in imaginative ways.
As we look at ways to dramatically enhance education in this millennium, we must engage our students in ways that make them capable of dealing with complex problems in imaginative ways.
Source | Business Standard | 17 June 2016
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Best
Paper Award | Received the Best Paper Award at TIFR-BOSLA National Conference on
Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence (NCFL 2016) on April 23,
2016. The title of the paper is “Removing
Barriers to Literacy: Marrakesh VIP Treaty”
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