We can’t deny the fact that education, today, has transformed significantly. The tried and tested teaching methods of yesterday are giving way to new teaching strategies that encourage children’s active participation. Teachers look for innovative ways to impart knowledge so that students are better able to retain the information.
It’s all about active learning in primary schools, besides other sections, where teachers experiment with ways to keep students engaged during lectures. Online schools also demand that teachers follow strategies that ensure students do not get distracted, but pay attention, especially in their physical absence.
The need for active learning:
Active learning is where the students are involved in the learning process instead of being mere passive learners. They participate in activities, such as reading or writing, to develop their thinking abilities.
This helps especially those students who find it difficult to concentrate in class or those whose minds wander away during lectures. By including them in the learning process, the teachers help students to stay focused, which results in better retention of information. Here are the different strategies of active learning in primary school followed by private schools in KL.
Active Learning Strategies:
-
Can you spot the mistake?
As part of this strategy, teachers make mistakes in writing or speaking about a topic that has been introduced in class. Teachers ask students to spot the mistake, which helps the teacher know which students have been paying attention, and which ones have understood the topic.
This strategy of active learning in primary schools makes learning a fun activity for children. They pay extra attention as they get a chance to spot their teacher’s mistakes, which is a rarity for them.
-
Sequencing
Once the teacher has introduced a topic and explained it in detail, they ask the students to recall it in sequential order. E.g. the teacher could use a set of pictures to describe an event or a scientific process. They could then mix up the pictures and ask the students to rearrange them in the correct order. This strategy helps students visually understand an abstract concept as well as retain the right order.
It also encourages the students to follow their teacher and observe keenly the correct order of the events, which would help them to recall the right order later.
-
Think and answer
In this strategy, the teacher poses different questions to the students about a particular topic and asks them to think and answer or draw a picture corresponding with the answer. This strategy helps develop the children’s recalling skills and builds their confidence. It also improves their imagination and creativity as they try to express their thoughts via drawings.
-
Summarize
Once the teacher completes a lesson and its explanation, they ask the students to summarize the lesson in a sentence or two. This improves the students’ vocabulary as they are expected to express their ideas in fewer words or condense the lesson into a couple of sentences only.
Conclusion
Varied strategies are employed by teachers for active learning in primary schools to help children stay focused and concentrate in class. These strategies help develop their observational skills, vocabulary, and thinking skills. They help improve students’ retention of information, which helps them immensely in their higher classes.