“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself”
by Galileo Galilei
Every teacher is responsible for making a bridge between delivering new knowledge, and its comprehension. Keeping your ear to the ground of what students really need and comply with their interests is a sign of great educator. Being aware of and implying modern teaching methods is crucial, they make learning process engaging and cultivate a desire for a life-long learning.
We, at Unicheck, would like to provide you an insight to the effective teaching methods that aim to understand your students more, consider psychological facets of learning as well as practical application that can’t but give positive results.
Spaced Learning
Within the abundance of information we face today, it is becoming hard for students to keep in mind everything, or they simply feel lack of time. It is up to you to create a surrounding environment and make it simple for your students to remember complicated things.
The main principle of the spaced learning method is spacing repetition of the learning elements over time span. Student’s memorization works better when material repetition happens with the course of time, thus long-term memory activates.
The repetitions should be verbal. So, if you have a new concept, present it, then go to other assignments, and then pronounce it again. Involve spacing repetition through all the lesson stages:
- Introductory stage (new concept presentation);
- The main stage (paraphrasing new concept, giving assignments, illustrations, case studies);
- Production stage (discussions, collaboration, dialogues that presuppose new concept application).
Space repetition provides long-term information retention. An absolutely amazing facet of the space repetition is that it cultivates a subconscious joyful attitude to learning material. Students are more likely to reflect on what they know about from different sides. The more attention you dedicate to a concept, the more students know about it. Voila! A positive image of a concept is formed! Space repetition really works as that’s how the nerve cells store information!
Engagement
Your task as a teacher is to make complex simple. So, that a student could not feel uncomfortable or stressful coming to your class every time. Thus, providing a real-world connection of knowledge gained in a classroom setting is a matter of engagement teaching method. High practical relevance is the core of student’s engagement. Student’s interest and motivation to study are evoked when they see how in practice works everything that they learnt theoretically. You may give a chance to your learners to visit various institutions, and let them get acquainted with the real work environment.
The idea of engagement teaching method is about allowing students become employees for a certain period. The effect of this method comprises in association. Students’ brain cells associate practical knowledge application with theoretical one. Evidence shows a tremendous increase of the number of students who started studying better.
Uncertain Reward
Recent research shows that a person is more motivated in any assignment implementation when he/she is not aware of the reward. A student becomes excited when he/she focuses on the process of achieving a reward. When a student awaits a positive reward for any assignment completion, he/she puts efforts to achieve positive task completion.
The main point to consider is the type of reward. If a student completes an assignment, and gets higher reward than expected, he will feel more eager to get another assignment. If the reward is lower than expected, the level of dopamine concentration decreases, and a student will feel more reluctant to complete new tasks. Your role as a teacher is to range assignments and rewards.
Uncertain reward may be used in game-based learning. It is an additional way to make your students cooperate.
Conclusion
Every year education aims to improve students’ attitude towards learning by making it more evolving, practical and inspiring. The development of neuroscience gives more understanding of how brain perceives and stores knowledge at its best. New teaching methods like spaced learning, engagement, and uncertain reward make student’s learning smooth and memorable.
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