Methods of Teaching

The role of a teacher is that of a God, as a teacher has the power to mold a mind and shape a student's life. The trust of a learner allows the teacher to empower a child with worldly knowledge. The relation of a teacher and a student is like that of raw iron and a sculptor.

The former needs to be tempered by proficient hands, to a shape that exudes intelligence, beyond comparison. To achieve this goal, a teacher must adapt and adopt different ways of teaching. Each child is unique and gifted. It is the job of a teacher to transform and tap the untouched potential and turn it into the student's strength.

Benjamin S. Bloom was an education psychologist who contributed largely to the methods of teaching. He believed that the things that we learn in first attempt use a certain plan to make an indelible impact on your mind.

He devised a teaching model, popularly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, which classifies objectives of learning in the simplest possible way. Interestingly, if you observe carefully, most educational games are also based on these objectives.

Students may or may not know the subject. To know how much they know, gauge by asking questions that would lead to discussions. Questions that have a yes/no answer won't help much. Once you have a fair idea, provide your students with adequate knowledge about the subject. This can be done through reading out, showing films, conducting research and so on.

This process of sharing knowledge has to be a gradual one. Excess information can lead to confusion and discourage children to learn further. A slow and steady effort of providing knowledge will help them assimilate it better. When the student starts asking you questions, it is the first sign of comprehension.

At this juncture, help your students to comprehend what has been assimilated. This can be done through discussions, explanations, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Comprehension is understanding the knowledge or information that has been shared.

Ask your students to answer questionnaires, draw up charts, and conduct group discussions that allow thinking aloud. This method of learning will show you how much has been absorbed by the students. It is comprehension of knowledge that leads to its application, which is the next stage of teaching and learning.

What happens after comprehension? When you are told to fill a bucket with water, you are given information and you comprehend it. Comprehension leads to action and the task is done. This is why the next objective of teaching is to teach the child practical application of knowledge.

To know how much knowledge has been comprehended, test your students. Make them apply their comprehension by giving them problems to solve. Situation reaction tests are a great way to know what has been learned. Use the same concept in new situations to make the student use comprehension of knowledge in different ways.

Once the student learns to apply what has been taught in real life situations, it's time to analyze what has been learned. With regards to the aforementioned example, analyze how you filled the bucket and what really happened. Scrutinize where did you source the bucket from and how long did it take to fill it up completely.

Help the child reiterate what actually happened while he was applying the knowledge. This will help him observe and go over the steps of application. Helping him analyze his own thought process, and the actions that followed will teach him to observe, assimilate, retain and replicate. This exactly how we appear for our exams.

Compile various ideas and situations wherein this knowledge will be applicable. Think of how you could have filled the bucket in different ways, to complete your task in a faster way. This step of teaching aims to help children learn effective ways of doing the same task.

Troubleshooting is a great way of learning how you will deal with the same concept in different ways. Team work and working in collaboration, helps them to see the same problem from various perspectives.

This is the last objective of teaching. Ask children to make judgments about what has been taught, how much was comprehended, how well did they apply it and how can they use it. Draw comparisons between different ways of doing the same task, to see which one is better.

This will help him evaluate his own understanding of the subject and show you the loopholes of your teaching methods. Additionally, it will also bring forth subconsciously used techniques of teaching.

Teaching is a two way process. A teacher learns about various techniques of teaching from a student, just as much as he learns about various subjects from the teacher. These objectives of teaching have to be kept in mind while making lesson plans and conducting class activities.

Using various mediums for teaching students such as films, games, computers, Internet and projects makes learning more interactive and engaging. Learning has to be a fun activity for both, the student and the teacher to gain maximum benefits.