Teaching techniques and tips

In the realm of our society, a teacher plays a vital role in shaping up the young and upcoming generation of a nation. They help mold young minds and train future leaders. They prepare and educate the future work force of an economy. In simple words, a teacher’s occupation might seem insignificant compared to other high paying occupations, but this is the one that holds the most impact in the way individuals shape our society. According to sociological school of thought, after an individual's family, his/her educational institution which includes teachers and peers, are an important source of secondary socialization. Teachers directly impact the thought process and personality developments of a person.

Today’s faced paced digital world has empowered students and opened up opportunities for education by setting at home. In this information era teachers no longer remain the primary source of knowledge. For teachers this has made it difficult to attract students attention in class and even tougher to maintain authority. Students get bored easily and decide not to pay attention entirely because they can access the information being conveyed, at home at a later time. Keeping in mind this problem that the teachers are faced with, this article presents creative teaching techniques which can help teachers to impart knowledge in a more interesting manner, so the student pays more attention at the school and during lectures.

The first step in making a classroom, a medium for relaxed learning environment, the teachers need to prepare an interactive lesson plan.This can be done by systematically and very carefully using instructional time productively. The more organized a teacher is in her lesson planning, the more effective the teaching, and eventually the learning for the students is. It is always beneficial to take help from visual aids to make the lesson livelier. Teachers, who are enthusiastic in their lectures and about their respective courses, produce students who are more likely to be engaged, interested, energetic, and curious about learning the subject matter. An interactive lesson plan organizes the teacher and she/he can easily include research on making the lecture less boring for students. Now that the lesson plan is complete and organized, the next step is entering into the classroom and grabbing the students’ attention for the duration of the lecture and assignment session.

As soon as the teacher enters the classroom, she/he needs to command the room, not in a way to threaten the students or impart fear, but in a way that he/she gives the impression of the sole authority in charge. When the lesson starts, and the teacher begins to deliver her lecture, it is a good idea to interact with the students. Ask them questions about the topic being studied look for their opinions and encourage practical examples and implications. Ask them what they think the topic is about, and give encouraging feedback. If visual aids are being used, they should act as facilitators to the teacher and not take the center stage. One of the most effective ways to increase the attention span of students in the class is by interacting with them during lesson. This makes students alert and makes them feel part of the process of education. Another method is encouraging interaction among the students. Start a debate related to the topic which encourages students to present their arguments, this will test their knowledge and will give students incentive to come to the future classes prepared and ready to present and argue their opinion.

“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves” source: honolulu.hawaii.edu

After an interactive lecture session, in the next step, the teacher needs to make the assignment session or the class work in note books, an equally creative, lively and knowledgeable time. The class work or assignment should be activity based, which may include group sessions or individual work. The assignment or class work should not be long, and teachers should idly give five minutes break after the lecture for students to take in the information. The teachers need to keep his/her presence strong during the assignment session, roaming about the class to look at student’s work and keep giving feedback. Positive feedback is an excellent source of motivation for the students to work harder and produce better results.

But most importantly, during the interactive lecture and later work session, discipline in class needs to be maintained to produce positive results in the end. Poorly disciplined interactive class is not an effective way to attract student’s attention so teachers can impart knowledge.

Some important teaching skills that teachers need to develop before they teach are as follows. These skills allow teachers to grasp and maintain students’ attention, this allows them to make the student feel relaxed and help them retain maximum knowledge.

Observation: To understand the students and to make knowledge being imparted their favorite part of the day, good teachers need to be keen observers. They need to understand the psyche of their class and observe and report the changing trends in everything, from games to clothes, so they can rightly understand how to catch their students’ attention and how to make school work fun.

Listening: A good teacher is good listener. He/she listens to the needs of his/her students and carefully picks out the positives when they communicate and give encouraging feedback. He/she also points out the short coming in a way to lift up the student to do better not put them down and make them feel defeated.

Openness: Delivering a lecture followed by assignment or class work without any discussion or feedback, becomes monotonous and boring for the students. Rightly so, they eventually stop paying attention. Teachers need to be open to listening to their student’s opinion, even if they disagree with the belief, they need to encourage them to think for themselves and draw out their own conclusions and If in the process they learn something new themselves, its win-win for all.