TEACHING APPROACHES AND LEARNING SKILLS

Teaching Approaches and Learning Skills



Teaching Approaches and Learning Skills

Part A

Presentation/Lecture

Presentations during class lectures are one of the most common practices of teaching in a class setting. Teachers incorporate presentations so that students can have a better understanding about the lectures and the lessons. In addition, a teacher can incorporate presentation as part of the teaching plan, with the help of technology. In today's classrooms, most of the schools around the world have projectors and screens in their classes to facilitate lectures via presentations. Teachers can develop these presentations on a PowerPoint, and give lectures according to each slide. There are other means of presentations as well, which involve a teacher to have students' attention so that he/she could deliver the lecture.

Group Work

Groups work is another practice, which teachers follow in almost all of the schools today. Teachers can use group work to facilitate class teaching and learning experiences of students. For instance, for a science project or assignment, teachers can form groups comprising of students, so that they can collaborate and work on the assignment as a team (Oakley & Elhajj 2004, pp. 9-34). This helps students to learn about working with different people as a team to accomplish common objectives.

Practical

A practical is an effective way of teaching students how to use theoretical knowledge in their practical lives. Practical is a common method of teaching in laboratory environments such as chemistry or computer laboratories. Through a practical, a teacher can assess if students have been able to understand the knowledge and lecture, and use proper applications to complete the practical (Terenzini & Bjorklund 2001, pp. 123-130). For instance, a teacher can assess if a student has understood the lecture pertaining to transferring files from one drive to another by a simple practical.

Demonstration

Demonstration can be extremely helpful in increasing students' participation during lectures, and getting their focus and interests in learning. Students show more interests in learning when learning through unique ways than learning only through books. A book has a number of illustrations and diagrams to facilitate learning. The purpose of these illustrations and diagrams is to bridge the gap between theory and learning. A teacher can use this method of illustrations and diagrams through live demonstrations. For instance, in a science class, a teacher can use demonstrations to teach students about weight and volume. This demonstration can involve a small bucket of water and, a paper water boat, and another boat made of iron. Which boat is likely to sink?

Resource Based Learning

Resource based learning is similar to problem based learning, and project based learning. A teacher can provide a number of opportunities to students, so that they can use their information literacy and critical-thinking skills to make use of the available information. Resource based learning is student-centric and helps them to gather information by themselves. In addition, resource based learning allows a teacher to play the role of a facilitator or a guide (Ryan 2000, pp. ...