Active engagement
in the classroom is often difficult because there is not any all-in-one
strategy that could work in most situations. If you are an innovative and
ambitious teacher, the will want your students be engaged in the class. There
are no such ideas as guarantee engagement of the students.
I have experienced
many faults in teaching style and typical approaches of old fashioned
traditional teachers. I know on what grounds a teacher is always successful in
giving high results. You may want to know more about 6 qualities of a successful teacher.
You might be
known to a variety of tools and techniques that may build interest in your students.
But the problem is that there are not such methods as will work in every situation.
So, here is a list for you. These ideas are tested by me in my own class rooms.
I have experienced the work of these ways and I am happy to share them with
you.
1. Use examples from real life and ask every student to connect the concepts to their personal lives.
Believe me,
the students are more interested in knowing how a particular concept they study
in their course relates to their own lives. Just ask your students to narrate
an example form their lives. Ask them to present their examples in written or
verbal forms. For example if the topic is ‘Technology kills the people’ you can
tell them an example of how one of your friends fell a victim of electric shock
and kicked the bucket. Inspire your students to tell such examples from their own
lives.
I was once teaching
the student how physical health is linked with our mental performance and educational
grades. I told them that how their physical health directly affects their brain
and how their mental performance is affected ultimately. I gave them an example
of a bright student of mine who fell a victim of typhoid. He, after recovering the
illness, could not perform well in the exams followed by his recovery. Similarly I told them the story of their own
class fellow.
Then I asked them if anyone could tell such examples. One of them
started and everyone say something or other. They were given an assignment on collecting
various health factors that affect their educational performance. It was an
interesting idea for the students as I knew they would do it with zeal as it
has something to do with their lives.
2. Use creative approach to make new things and ideas
Ask your
students to make something new using the knowledge and skills he learnt from
the class. As it is for sure, every student is creative in some sense. You have
to motivate them to take the initiative. I, as a teacher, believe in my students.
For example, your students may use the toothpicks and modeling clay to create
molecules in a Biology class. Thus creativity will not only give them real learning
environment but it will also keep them engaged. Make the teaching an interesting
thing for your students.
3. Organize Group work Activities
Sharing of
knowledge and opinions can help increase the engagement in the classroom. Ask
your students to share their opinion with others. Divide the students in groups
and ask them to discuss the topic. Students love group discussions as they feel
free to say anything they perceive.
Students will help each other in this way. However, you can use small break-out
collaboration sessions as opportunities to engage with ideas and create
teachable moments where students help each other with any missing pieces that
their peers require. All members are then actively engaging and contributing in
a meaningful way.
4. Ask your students to share their own views, experiences, and knowledge through blogging
This tool
will keep them engaged with the content. As they will write a post, help them
promote their message to other people in the world. Appreciate their
accomplishments and help them even do much better. Ask every student to pass at
least one comment to the post of other students. It will generate discussion
and the students will be engaged.
There are
movies that can teach a particular idea to your students. From many of the Bollywood
movies, These are recommended for every college student and These are recommended for every teacher.
5. Integrate some social media tools into your active classroom
Social Media
has become an important tool for spreading your words. Get your students connected
beyond the classroom environment. See the concepts and ideas work in real
world. You can use twitter, Linkedin and facebook page etc to provide a
platform of information from the educational space.
Social media
can be used to engage the students in commenting and resharing the ideas and
concepts with different perspectives. As we all know, the students are really interested
in social media sharing and they will find it interesting to deliver them a
lecture with social media website opened in front of them. You may choose relevant
posts to include in your lecture as examples and central content.
For example you
can discuss the profile pictures of the people if your are giving lecture on
clothing, hair style, fashion etc. You can discuss the birthday celebration
pictures of the people to discuss the type of cakes, decorations,
indoor/outdoor celebration trends, gatherings of people etc.
There are
many apps that help students in learning. I recommend this list of 10 apps recommended for every college student.
If
you are sure of some other strategies, We welcome your contribution as
comments...
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