My CICT experiences so far…

Before stepping in to CICT, I was very apprehensive however I went with the flow and thought… Let’s give it a try! As the CICT sessions are going on, my curiosity to learn more and more is accelerating. For instance, let me share my experience with active learning.

Active Teaching—Active Learning

"Active learning" is a phrase tossed around a great deal today. It suggests an approach to classroom instruction in which students are engaged in learning through talking, writing, reading, reflecting, or questioning – in other words, through being active. Even the research has shown that youth learn best by doing.

Active learning improves students' understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. The teacher becomes a facilitator of learning rather than a giver of knowledge.

Active learning is a student-centred approach

I learned many new techniques of active learning in the CICT sessions and even tried a few in my class. Once I started using these active learning strategies, students were engaged actively in the active learning environment. They were also learning at a much deeper level.

For example, during my literacy lesson, students were in a circle having a group discussion about Palm Tree. As the students continued the discussion, I got up and went over to the board and drew the mind map of their discussion which gave a clear understanding of the topic to the children. All the children, even the shy-learners were so intense and involved in the discussion. I viewed this as a positive aspect, the discussion had everyone in the circle contributing, sharing the information and learning collaboratively. I see active learning as a win/win. Typically it is much easier to plan your lessons, the students are more engaged, and the students remember more from the activity.

Then I tried to go for the next active learning technique “Roundtable”. I made four groups in the class and posed a question to each group as per their ability. Each child wrote an answer in a sheet of paper and passed around the group. Children were so thrilled and actively participated in this group activity. By the end each group shared their answers with the entire class.

Next I tried “Corners”, this transformed my class to an active learning island with little active scientists. They moved around in groups to the different corners of the class with their markers discussing and answering each posed question.

This is the type of classroom we all dream about and it can happen when you use active learning.