Active Learning

What is active learning?

Active learning is an appropriate way for children to develop vital skills and knowledge and a positive attitude to learning. It engages and challenges children’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations. Active learning supports learners' development. For example, they can develop as:

• Successful learners through using their imagination and creativity, tackling new experiences and learning from them, and developing important skills including literacy and numeracy through exploring and investigating.
• Confident individuals through succeeding in their activities and learning about bouncing back from setbacks.
• Responsible citizens through learning to share and give and take, learning to respect themselves and others, and taking part in making decisions.
• Effective contributors through tackling problems, extending communication skills, taking part in sustained talking and thinking, and respecting the opinions of others.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of active learning?

Active learning have pros and cons however as per my experience, active learning engage a greater range of students in effective learning and it positively affects the attitude of students toward self and peers in the learning process. It can build community within the classroom.

Advantages of Active Learning

• Children have more opportunity to be independent learners.
• Studies have shown that children’s attention fades fast after 15-20 minutes – getting them involved and talking to their peers reenergizes them and ‘resets’ the attention clock.
• Children get involved and engaged in activities that helps to keep them interested and focused.
• Children usually find such activities energising and are likely to engage in more.
• Peer support and peer learning: Collaborative activities (such as group work, pair work or triads) provide children with opportunities to learn from and support each other.
• By sharing knowledge and experiences, by being encouraged to take a different perspective on a particular topic children may learn to reflect critically on the things they do and say.

Disadvantages of active learning 

• These activities will take up class time.
• It takes time and effort to create good activities. 
• It is difficult to know if one student is doing all or none of the work in a group/pair work/triads. 
• May be difficult to organize active learning experiences. 

Overwhelmed to be a Teacher

Reading my post “Teaching: It Chose Me”, now you know what has led me to become a teacher. However, I would like to elaborate further on why I chose teaching and whether I enjoy it or not. It's hard to put into words all the reasons why I want to be a teacher, let me give it a try. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, and engineers. How did they all get to where they are today? They progressed to where they are in life because they had a teacher, someone who taught them in the way they should go. I have chosen to become a teacher because I believe no star is too far out of reach, if you put your mind to accomplishing your goal you can make it. I want my classroom to be an exciting adventure land of learning for children. I truly have a passion for making a difference in others lives. I feel that teaching is perhaps one of the most fulfilling roles in life. Some days when I take time to ponder the immensity that the role of a teacher entails I feel overwhelmed.

Self-evaluation

Through self-evaluation, each teacher will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their work, and this will help improve their teaching to be more effective. The use self-evaluation assist them to identify areas for improvement, and to take the first steps towards implementing that improvement through the development of their teaching style.

Power of Learners Feedback

Learners Feedback is important to teachers. They can take pride in the progress their students are making. And if they're to ensure that their teaching is effective, they need to know where students are doing well and what they might be finding difficult. Learners feedback can be obtained in different ways e.g. written feedback, mid plenary etc.

Catering to different learners and different learning styles

Each and every child think and learn differently. 

My role as a teacher is to support my students learning. Effective teaching takes account of and adapts to students learning needs. I cater for different learning styles through varied lesson activities.
For example I cater for high achievers by providing activities or assessment tasks that require higher order thinking processes or extension tasks, while for low achievers I give scaffold learning and give specific instructions. I engage my students in an active learning process to cater their individual learning styles.

Learning...

Learning means...

Learning is a gift of wonder and empowerment. Learning precisely means the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study and experience. However at present in 21st century, definitions of learning advanced to the level of technology.


Learning styles

Each child learn differently, and psychologists have attempted through the years to spell out the traits of different types of learners and categorize them into different “learning styles.” It is a well-known fact in human life that people are different from each other. Based on this fact, children differ in the way they perceive or learn because they have different learning styles which determine the way through which they learn during teaching-learning process.

Three different learning styles are identifiable among learners are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. These learning styles have advantages and disadvantages. I will also pen down few helplines to help these learners excel in the classroom.

Visual Learning Style

Children who learn best through visual aids have a visual learning style. Visual aids include facial expressions, pictures, educational clips, etc. Visual learners think and learn in pictures.

Advantages - Visual learners are good at visualizing events and imagining situations. They use visual strategies for remembering information. They may also see the whole picture when discussing or working on a problem or task.

Disadvantages - Visual learners need more time to complete tasks. They have difficulty when only texts and speeches are available for learning, without any visual aids. They tend to be more interested in the appearance of something than its actual value - which may be a disadvantage in some situations, though not in all. They may not spend enough time on, or give enough attention to specific details.

Helping visual learners excel in the classroom:
· Write out directions.
· Use visual aids such as flashcards and blocks.
· Show the visual patterns in language to teach spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.
· Organize information using color codes.

Auditory Learning Style

Auditory Learners learn by hearing what they want to learn. To learn, they prefer listening to discussions, reading out of texts, audio clips etc. You are very likely to have skills in sequencing and organizing information.

Advantages - Auditory learners retain information without having to see it in texts or pictures. They may remember information by using a checklist.

Disadvantages - It's highly likely that you are unable to multitask and may also prefer to work on their own rather than work in groups.

Helping auditory learners to excel in classroom:

· Play word games and use rhymes to practice language.
· Use beats, rhythms, and songs to reinforce educational information.

Kinesthetic Learning Style

Kinesthetic learners prefer to learn by moving and doing. They prefer interactive learning, learning through practical challenges and hands-on experience. Kinesthetic learners, learn as they practice and practice what they learn.

Advantages - The kinesthetic learner enjoys learning through doing and finds it easy to demonstrate how to do something. This active learning style is useful enjoy the actual experience of learning.

Disadvantages - Kinesthetic learners tend to miss some instructions if it is presented orally. They may find it difficult to concentrate on a lengthy written task while seated.

Helping to get the most out of kinesthetic learners:

· Provide plenty of hands-on learning tools, such as crayons, blocks, puzzles, etc.
· Use the outdoors for learning opportunities.
· Teach educational concepts through games.

Difference between Aims and Objectives

Aim is a target or aspiration on what we hope to achieve by the end while objective is a goal or a step on the way to meeting the aim; how you will achieve it. Aims are usually detailed and long term whereas objectives are specific and for a particular ti
me limit.

Teaching: It Chose Me...

Hey everyone!!

Welcome to my blog

Well, I will not say it’s my first post or I am new to blogging as I’ve been blogging and blog walking from quite long. Many of the Teachers would answer the question, why I chose to become a teacher? With me it’s the other way round, “Teaching: It Chose Me”. My road to the teaching field has taken a few curves along the way, there were many career opportunities that I was interested in yet the day when I did my first lesson I realized strongly that Teaching is the one for me. In the back of my mind, I think I've always wanted to be a teacher. I realize now teachers do more than teach – they are role models for their little ones and have tremendous influence on young minds.

Being a young teacher, I interact more effectively with young children. I love to see how well they learn what I am teaching them. I am going to help our next generation believe they can be anything they want to be. I want to teach and learn with them new and exciting things through e-learning. They are our next generation so someone must encourage them and set them on the track towards success. I believe I can be that someone.

I would like to go for the USE OF ICT as my teaching approach in everyday learning of English, Maths and Science.