Effective Teaching Methods

Teaching is one such profession where the success of the teachers largely depends on the ability of the students. And yet, getting the students to succeed is what the teachers have to undertake, in order to themselves succeed. There have been cases where the teachers have been able to make great learners of students who have shown no potential.

This becomes possible because teachers adopt the right teaching method to make the students understand the nuances of the subject. This works because different methods make the material easier to comprehend and assimilate.

Take a look at some of the most effective teaching methods that are adopted by teachers to ensure, not only that their students understand the subjects in all their entirety, but also develop confidence by improving their results.

It is important that the teacher sets goals, not only for himself/herself, but also for his/her students. This works such that when students have a definite goal to reach, they are able to shape and direct their efforts into reaching it. All their efforts become streamlined and structured so that are able to achieve the goal.

It is important that the teacher underlines the key concepts of a lesson or chapter so that the students learn to identify the main ideas that they need to understand in the study material. Along with highlighting the main concepts, the teachers should also help the students in identifying the key concepts, so that they are able to study better.

It is important that the teacher establishes an interactive environment so that the students have a 'safe place' where they can speak out and voice their opinions and doubts. In fact, they are encouraged to do so. In this way, the teacher can not only understand which concepts have been understood well, but also solve any doubts right there and then.

Many times, certain works of art are highly influenced by the era that they are written in. The ongoing social scene like war or an incident in the author's personal life may have a tremendous effect on the work.

When the students know the full background of the work that they are studying, they are able to understand the many layers of the same and therefore a better understanding of the piece in all its entirety.

One of the simplest, and yet, really effective method is that of taking up revision of the lessons taught. With so many new things being learned, there are chances that a student will forget a lot of those lessons―with revision, all those learned topics will come to the fore and will become simpler and easier to remember and recollect.

In addition to revising the lessons, one other method that can be made use of is that of questioning the students. This not only gets their thinking wheels turning but also helps the teacher to understand how many students have understood the concept and how many have not. This allows the teacher to plan future lessons.

Taking the help of visual aids is another fantastic teaching strategy. The human mind is better equipped to remember information in the form of pictures than simple words, and therefore, visual aids not only help in better understanding of a lesson, but also in remembering the same. Depending on the age group, the visual aids to be used can be decided.

Besides all the classroom studies, it is imperative to concentrate on the talent that the student exhibits beyond classroom studies. There are some students who cannot assimilate the routine and inhibited classroom academics, but on the other hand, respond well to experiments and demonstrations.