Being innovative is very important in today’s world. With the revolutionary change in the world of technology and gadgets, the way of teaching has changed too. Gone are the ages, when only copies and books used to be the only way of learning. Computers and Tablets have completely made learning fun. For teachers, Blackboard is not the only medium to teach students. Now-a-days, PowerPoint presentations have helped students learn in a better way.
If you’re a teacher, your primary concern is probably, “How do I make sure that my students are interested in the content?” Whatever it is you’re teaching, whether it’s mathematics or higher order thinking, there’s a way to keep your students interested. Follow these six tips for engaging your students.
1. Continuously put emphasis on your topic’s most critical pieces of information. It’s important to understand that most of the primary concepts you’ll be teaching are completely foreign to the student. Only through repetition will they begin to remember and then grasp the concepts. Constantly refer to the concepts in lectures, assignments and tests.
2. Utilize activities to reinforce new material. If you’ve just introduced new material to the student, having them engage in certain activities will help them better understand what they just learned. Once you’ve taught the student something new via a lecture, reading or group discussion, have them put their new knowledge to use. If you need to pick groups, try to pair strong students with weaker students.
3. New vocabulary can be one of the most difficult things for students to get a handle on. New terms, especially confusing ones or ones that are hard to remember, should be defined and used regularly. This will help with retention.
4. When you teach new material, try to link it to something that the students already understand. This can be either previous material or even real life experiences. This will help students to remember the material more easily. Sometimes, all the link has to be is logical thinking. If you can help a student think logically through a new concept, they have a better chance of remember it in the future.
5. Instead of assuming the worst about your weaker students, realize that they may be struggling because they don’t know how to study and remember the material. If they’re doing poorly on exams, it may not simply be because they’re lazy. Different students learn in different ways – as a teacher, it’s important to provide various ways for the student to learn.
6. The more abstract the concept, the more important it is to provide a visual aid. Diagrams, flowcharts or even mental images make abstract concepts much easier to grasp and retain.
