6 Innovative Teaching Methods That Will Transform Your Class
Kenneth Soares
September 25, 2024
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2 min read
If you’re teaching a class of students, you’ve got your work cut out for you. There’s several things to keep in mind from what they’re being taught to the level at which you’re teaching to the way in which they’re being taught. Nailing the last of those is a real headscratcher of a task. Teaching methods can be paralleled to sales pitches; if they don’t strike a chord, they go real bad real fast. Fair to say, the method used for teaching is arguably the primary decider to whether or not students will engage and attend to your concepts appropriately. So here’s some super quick trick-or-treatment you can consider using in your class for better results.
Creative teaching can be viewed as a broad subject, but honestly, it stands on one underlying principle - using out-of-the-box thinking to convey core ideas and concepts to your students. Quick fix examples would include practices like repetition of key concepts, mnemonic devices to help memorise long lists and several others mentioned ahead. Teaching kids creatively means empowering them to find information on their own.
You can achieve this by teaching them via. a more project based approach with a focus on research and application rather than going back and forth on theoretical jargon. In this way, you’re equipping them with the skills they need in the later stages of life at an earlier age. Moreover, it will help you to explain concepts whenever needed as their minds are now more adept to comprehending information more cohesively.
Pro tip: Whenever possible, try to make learning fun for students. Make them play games such as treasure hunt, scavenger hunt, etc. You can use QR Codes. They can quickly scan them and find clues. Uniqode's QR Code generator can be used to create these fun QR Codes.
Let’s face it, we all love consuming content. There’s just something about looking at virtual moving pictures and sounds that appeals to the human mind and finds the engagement sweetspot. Besides, this a massive advantage that is evident with using AV techniques in your teaching is that it offers an unimaginable spectrum of variety. Think about it, you can find thorough documented coverage on practically any topic in the world (Thank you, Internet). In the 21st century, the strides made in the AV sector around education have been extraordinary (to say the least). Can you really miss cashing in on resources like these?! (can you?)
Outdoor classes are frankly a very undervalued technique in teaching. However, its merits are undeniable. The benefits of learning outdoors include better performance, more creativity, an improved attention span, more opportunities for informal learning among several others. Outdoor classes are also a great way to teach certain topics by allowing kids to view and experience them occurring in real time. Besides, the change in scenery really helps in breaking mundane routines to keep you fresh and more receptive to information. Imagine all these benefits with the added advantage of being able to enjoy the great outdoors rather than the same stuffy old classroom. Sounds like an upgrade to me!
Brainstorming is a process wherein a group works together to generate ideas and/or come up with solutions. As a teaching technique, it involves you actively participating with your group of students to come up with these ideas and solutions. Brainstorming as a teaching technique offers benefits on multiple levels. First off, it builds solidarity; first amongst your students within themselves and secondly between you and your students. This makes for a healthier classroom environment which in turn improves productivity in class ultimately, a better learning experience.
Who doesn’t like a great narrative to follow? Well, that’s exactly what story-boarding achieves in a classroom space. It’s a teaching technique that helps teachers engage the students while highlighting key ideas of a concept or topic by illustrating and including them in the story’s most crucial scenarios. The best ways to use the storyboard technique is by reading a story out loud or even assigning students to make their own storyboards and assessing their understanding of various concepts through their use of them in the story.
Hypothetical learning is a concept that we practice in our day to day lives without even realizing that we do it. It’s when we try our hand at anticipating the outcome of future ventures and incidents that we may come across (not to be confused with psychic readings, unfortunately). What hypothetical teaching poses in essence is the task of placing your students in hypothetical real world scenarios and having them come up with appropriate responses to figure their way out of it. You can commit to this idea on several levels from writing the situation down on a piece of paper to actually simulating the environment to the best of your ability. The primary payoff with this technique is that it arms students with great intuition and amazing problem solving ability better than any other conventional method.
If you're a teaching and learning business looking to enhance your classroom strategies, Classcard can help. Our platform offers a range of features to support your innovative teaching methods, including attendance marking, scheduling classes, and managing payments. Empower your students with creative, audio-visual, and project-based learning while keeping track of their progress effortlessly. Discover how Classcard can transform your teaching experience and bring out the best in your students.
Trying innovative ways of teaching and experimenting with different ideas can open up a whole new world of possibilities for you as well as your students, and can yield significant results in terms of student engagement and performance. So why not give them a go and see how they transform your classroom?