Brilliant Innovations that Teachers Can Use
to Make their Classrooms More Engaging
In today’s increasingly globalised world, it is important
to make learning and education a holistic experience beyond classroom
academics. Keeping this in mind, Indian schools are introducing various
innovations in classrooms to give students all-round development and growth.
The classroom is the original cultivator of
true learning and the green house that nurtures talent and creativity. The dynamics
between a teacher and students define the essence of a classroom. A great
teacher can transform the brick-and-mortar confinement and take students on a
journey of pure learning, responding to their doubts and instilling an
environment of curiosity and interactivity. Hence, to optimize the learning
experience, schools and colleges in India are vying to embrace innovative
methods, installing the latest educational technology and encouraging teachers
to be more creative than ever.
Here’s a glimpse of some of the innovative
techniques that teachers are trying out to make learning effective, engaging,
and fun.
Audio-visual (AV) supplements
Many educational institutions in India have
AV-equipped classrooms or venues to boost students’ learning and understanding.
Teachers explain difficult subject like Physics/Maths/Chemistry through
graphical representation of complex equations with the help of smart-boards.
For language learning, the audio-visual equipment is an indispensable tool.
Teachers can play snippets of award-winning films, plays, and speeches of great
orators, both in vernacular, English, or the target language to facilitate the
skills of listening, speaking, and histrionics.
Subject
teachers are leveraging AV facilities in interesting ways to trigger the
class’s curiosity through graphics, images, and puzzles, thereby driving them
to think out-of-the-box. Above all, it satisfies a student’s need to see, hear,
and have a complete grasp of what they are learning.
Flip
methodology or classroom
This technique, to put simply, is to roll the
responsibility of learning towards the students and make them active
participants of the learning process. B-schools like SP Jain Institute of
Management and Research (SPJIMR) and Indian School of Business (ISB) are
some of the pioneers of flip classroom in India. Here, teachers relegate to the
role of resource or material providers via email or intranet, whereas students
take the centre stage of gathering concepts, constructing knowledge, and
drawing inferences.
However, the other significant aspect is that
teachers follow it up with a discussion session on the given topic on a
stipulated day to ensure students’ participation, seriousness, and overall
learning. Besides discussions, there are group presentations, debates, and
essay writing competitions.
Teachers
are implementing effective and interesting measures to evaluate students’
learning outcomes and the efficacy of the flip method. Surprisingly, when given
responsibility, students take more interest, immerse themselves in the project,
and deliver much better. Flip methodology promotes greater student involvement
in the learning process and lays down the foundation of independent learning.
Role play
Role play brings in the element of
entertainment into the classroom. As much as it is loved by students, this
technique facilitates their understanding and appreciation of the characters
that they read about. From pre-schools to Senior Secondary level, schools are
implementing this method as it’s a great source to instill in children values
and ideals as they play the roles of historical stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi,
Pandit Nehru, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, or legendary characters
like Caesar, Mark Anthony, and Charlie Chaplin, to name a few.
Students are encouraged to have their own
version of the characters they are portraying, and enact them with the context
of the present times. Through role play, students also get to learn about
various aspects of stage performance – from acting to voice projection –
and discover their acting talent. This technique also helps teachers
explore creativity and critical thinking in students. Role play is an impactful
method to enhance learning that also lends learners opportunity to live the
experience through empathy and internalising values.
Peer teaching
It is one of the most effective strategies to
even up the learning curve of a class. Usually, teachers pair students who are
high performers with those students who might be struggling in a subject area.
Students are also encouraged to volunteer, or are randomly chosen to take over
as the subject teacher. It offers a platform of knowledge sharing among
students, besides harbouring healthy competition.
The interesting aspect of peer teaching is that students tend to respond more
actively when one of them dons the mantle of the teacher. The class becomes
attentive and interactive in a bid to challenge each other in a
constructive manner. With regular peer teaching sessions, students start to develop
better grasp of the concepts, display maturity, tend to be more disciplined,
and also develop better communication skills.
Beside B-schools, this method is now widely
used at all levels of education irrespective of affiliation, boards, or
curriculum. Children studying at schools in rural areas too are getting their
share of playing the teacher. Kudos to Government Higher Primary School (GHPS)
in Kadasi Kopa in the Kanakapura Taluk in Karnataka for being a trailblazer
among government schools by successfully and strategically implementing
peer teaching on a daily basis. Furthermore, to underline the gravity of peer
teaching, teachers assess student’s performance as part of continuous
evaluation.
Games
The play-way lessons are quite popular among
students of all grades, and a successful strategy to keep them engaged. If the
sessions are carefully designed and smoothly executed by teachers, this method
reinforces cognitive knowledge, especially of mathematical and scientific
concepts, and vocabulary. Teachers are experimenting with various kinds and
levels of word and mind games like quiz, puzzle-solving, Scrabble, Sudoku, etc.
Games help to seamlessly incorporate subject
knowledge with application, and are an answer to productive and smart learning.
This is reinstated by Bangalore-based tech firm Quest Alliance in designing a
game called Anandshala Gupshup for enhancing communication between parents and
young students. The game increased parents’ awareness about their children’s
need, and that reflected in students’ improved class performance and
attendance. The second game, called Career Quest and designed for students of
vocational studies, helped them revisit technical concepts as well as provided
them training on life skills.
Collaboration
Collaboration is an essential life skill in a
globalised environment, the driving force of all enterprises. In an educational
institution, this skill can best be fostered in the classroom by allowing
students to work in groups. Educators are planting the seed of a collaborative
mind as early as primary school, where young children are motivated to create,
plan, and organise group presentations of stories, skits, or poems. Throughout,
teachers help students chalk out their plans, provide them key points,
supervise their work, and build team spirit.
Many schools have made collaborative project
work a prominent part of the curriculum. Teachers are designing their lessons
to allow time and resources for group activities, be it research or class
presentation.
Going beyond the classroom
Education should make children aware of the
world and themselves, widen their perspective, and make them seek the truth.
Schools are embracing the trend of taking children outside the classroom.
Whether on a nature trail, or visiting cottage industry, students now
directly interact with what they read about in books. Children gain more knowledge
when they see and experience history in museums than being taught the same in
the class.
Field trips are now an integral part of the
CBSE curriculum. International boards too have made excursions compulsory in
schools. Dr. Pillai Global Academy had recently arranged for an exciting field
trip for students to Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand. Along with a
trip to Nainital and Delhi, this provided students with hands-on learning.
Hence, there is a visible increase in the number of excursions organised by
schools. Students, teachers, and parents enthusiastically come forth to make
the attempt a holistic educational experience.
The various innovations and the creative
endeavours of the teachers are making classrooms zones of great activity and
intellectual rigour. Though the journey is at its nascent stage, the future
holds promises of a rich and holistic learning space. Every student can
have access to a repository of resources that will enable them to learn
independently and meaningfully.
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Event | MANLIBNET 17th
Annual International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida,
India
