Teaching Methods in Education

To achieve the goal of teaching, the teacher must adopt effective teaching methods. The teacher has many options to choose from, different techniques, designed specifically for teaching and learning. Writing lesson plans is a foremost thing that a teacher must do, before executing any teaching strategy in the class.

The teaching method should be adopted on the basis of certain criteria like the knowledge of the students, the environment, and the set of learning goals decided in the academic curriculum.

Students respond differently to different methods. Also, the students have their unique way of demonstrating the knowledge acquired, and absorbing the information that is imparted.

So, to aid this process of demonstrating the knowledge, the teacher has to adopt a technique that assists the students in retaining the information and increasing their understanding. There are many techniques to teach kids like questioning, modeling, demonstrating, collaborating, and explaining. All of these have been discussed here.

Testing and questioning are always known to be effective methods due to its interactive nature. The questions are asked by the teacher with an intention to know what the student has learned from earlier discussions. It helps in deciding what should be taught further.

This can even be vice-versa - students questioning the teachers to clarify the doubts that would enhance their understanding of the subject. The inquisitive instinct of the students evoke them to ask questions and satiate their query.

The teacher should encourage this in a positive way so that the student's critical thinking is developed. Testing differs in one aspect from questioning. A test is taken in order to know about the previous knowledge, what has been already taught to the students.

Sometimes, the experiences can also be shared as a part of knowledge that would work as a source of inspiration for the students. While adopting this method, the teacher should give an introduction and a proper summary. Make sure that the information is specific to the audience.

The explanation should be accompanied with suitable examples for a better understanding of the students. It is like a discourse on a particular subject or topic that is for the entire class or public. Explaining can be clubbed with the modeling process to be more effective, and to have a long-lasting effect on the pupils.

Modeling is a type of visual aid for teaching as well as learning. It is a known fact that the human brain absorbs more, and understands better, when visual aid facilitates explanation. This method works on three criteria - observing, retaining, and replicating. The students learn more by observing the things, and acquire it by imitating it time and again.

This is also known as reinforced behavior. This type of learning has a very important role to play in the learning process, especially during the childhood, though it can happen in any stage of life. This helps the students to visualize things and, then hypothesize the solution.

With the help of demonstrative teaching, students get an opportunity to explore the various aspects and understand the theory from a different perspective. Demonstration is a step-by-step explanation, along with their reasons, and significance for the better understanding of the student.

It enhances the student's understanding by practically applying the knowledge, and sharpen their skills and hence, help them in identifying and organizing the subject matter in a more efficient way. Practical experimentation is a very good method used for demonstrating the subject.

Teamwork is a contemporary form of collaboration. The students are taught to work in a group that makes the instructing easier for the teacher. This method of teaching promotes a sense of mutual responsibility among the students. They learn to put in more effort to research for the topic, and apply effective techniques to get the result.

This inculcates patience and develops an ability to critically analyze a subject. It gives an opportunity to the students to solve the problem by a healthy discussion and co-operation.

This is what we call 'group discussions' which motivates the students to perform in a team, show leadership skills, and enhances the presentation capabilities as well. This is one of the best, direct instructional methods.

These techniques for special education is a little different from the methods and theories for others. The education is imparted to these students based on their strengths and weaknesses.

The teachers cater to the special needs of the students like modification in the regular teaching program, use of supplementary aids that allows students to participate in the learning process. Different effective teaching strategies are adopted on the basis of the disabilities.

Four kinds of provisions are adopted in special education and they are inclusion, mainstream, segregation, and exclusion.

Apart from these defined methods, nowadays many other methods are being adopted to give quality education. Methods like role-play, story or games, seminars, presentations, workshops, conferences, brainstorming, case study, educational trips and modern audio-visual aids like documentary films, computers, Internet, etc., have been introduced in education.

These new methods have increased the pace of learning and understanding. This also enhances the capability of the students to research and think logically about a given problem.