Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, Online ISSN 2278-8808, SJIF 2018 = 6.371, www.srjis.com PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL, JAN-FEB, 2019, VOL- 6/49 EFFECTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES
Reena Trivedi, Ph.D. Assistant Professor& Head, Department of Economics, R.R.P.G. College, Amethi Abstract Effective teaching is one of the most challenging job of higher education. It improves the quality of higher education. Improving the present of students, providing them new knowledge and make them ready for a bright future must be the priority of effective teaching. The central aim of effective teaching is to help students learn more effectively and efficiently that they could on their own. It motivates and engages all students in learning. Effective teacher believe every student is capable of achieving success in studies and find ways of making every student successful. A good teacher helps the students to learn. Teacher‟s beliefs, attitudes and educational philosophy influence the instructional approach, classroom climate and relationship with students. The role of a teacher has been changed from a traditional information provider through lecture to a more modernized and multiple responsibility approach in the new technological world. The knowledge of teaching skills and their proper implementation in a classroom, matters a lot. Effective teaching includes fair expectations, positive attitude and patience with students along with assessment on a regular basis. One of the most challenging tasks of effective teaching is to create a learning environment, which adequately fulfill the needs of all students. A teacher should know about his students, their abilities, understanding level, interests, attention spans and prior knowledge while delivering a lecture in a classroom. Effective teaching does not means only increase in the number of graduates, it must also include improvement in the judgment power of students, human relation skills, problem solving aspect in real life, moral values and a higher confidence level. Effective teaching involves quantitative as well as qualitative teaching which improves the quality of human resource needed for economic growth of a country. KEY WORDS: Effective teaching, teaching skills, strategies, inclusive education, technology, evaluation.
c
Scholarly Research Journal's is licensed Based on a work at www.srjis.com “The best teachers are those who shows you where to look, but don‟t tell you what to
see.” – Alexandra K. Trenfor. Effective teaching is one of the most challenging aspects of higher education. It improves the quality of higher education. The central aim of effective teaching is to help students learn more effectively and efficiently that they could do on their own. Effective teachers believe every student is capable of achieving success in studies and find ways of making every student successful. Several strategies are needed for effective teaching. These are discussed below: Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Reena Trivedi (Pg. 11787-11792)
11788
Preparation of the lesson Before preparing for teaching a content a teacher should know about his students, their abilities, weaknesses, understanding level, interests, attention spans, previous knowledge. It is necessary to determine teaching objectives, developing a syllabus and making lesson plans. Books, articles, newsletters, conferences and online study materials provide ample help. Teaching requires knowledge authority and ability to answer the questions. Management of class room is also important. A brief introduction should be given at the start of the class that explain what points will be covered that day. Close the topic by summarizing it and discussing with the students. Attention Management Techniques One of the most challenging tasks to be an effective teacher is to create a learning environment, which adequately fulfill the needs of all students. Classroom learning environment is an important component of teaching and learning. Both physical and emotional environment of a classroom affects what a student learns. A classroom should have positive learning environment with pin drop silence and students concentration on the topic being taught. A more attentive class is positively correlated to higher achievement levels. Teacher should act as a facilitator not as a dictator. These help students to feel comfortable and confident as learners. Students‟ attention in the classroom is also an important aspect of learning. A teacher has to assess whether students are paying attention or not. Interactive teaching improves the interaction between the teacher and students. A teacher can inspire a discussion by asking questions to students after lecture. Assignment can be given to write a short paragraph on content taught that day. After a lecture divide a class into few groups, assign a learning point and inspire discussion. The will grab and hold students attention in the classroom and improve their learning capacity. Effective communication and presentation The teacher‟s language should be easy to understand for the students. The use of words, tone and volume of voice and pacing are powerful tools of effective communication and presentation. Through it, a teacher can explain the complex concepts in an easy way. It helps in sharing information and knowledge in a better way. Effective presentation of the content is equally important. Some of the students‟ attraction strategies are – focusing on students‟ prior knowledge with the content, easy Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Reena Trivedi (Pg. 11787-11792)
11789
presentation on power point instead a blackboard. Keep watching the classroom, grab students‟ attention, use of graphs and figures, communicate complex concept in a simple and easy way, develop self-confidence while delivering a lecture. Creative Teaching Creative teaching method with new ideas apart from traditional teaching promotes students learning and their problem solving capacity. use of audio-visual aids enhance their learning abilities. Creative teaching becomes meaningful learning when the knowledge has value to the learner, satisfies him, can be used and which impacts learner‟s thinking, feeling and behaviour. Inclusive Teaching Inclusive teaching helps in creating and maintaining a learning environment in which all students are fully engaged and respected, supports meaningful and accessible learning for all types of students. It promotes equal access and knowledge in the classroom. Knowing and respecting students with different abilities will help in solving teaching challenges along with improvement in overall classroom performance. Use of Technology Use of technology in teaching and learning improves students engagement, improves their knowledge retention and makes teaching and learning more meaningful, joyful and easy. It makes teaching much simpler, interesting and effective. Knowledge that is organized with visualization of concepts, can lead to transfer knowledge to a deeper and longer lasting understanding of the taught concept. It helps students to understand, recall and think critically about the concept. Use of modern technology like computers, mobile learning, video conferencing, projectors, power point presentation are helpful in improving learning capacity and enhancing students grade. Technology can connect even a village level classroom to a modern innovative world. Qualitative teaching Qualitative teaching is more important to quantitative teaching. Where quantitative teaching improves student‟s performance in terms of grade averages, qualitative teaching on the other hand improves judgment power, human relation skills, problem solving aspect in real life, moral values and inspires confidence in the students. Effective teaching does not
Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Reena Trivedi (Pg. 11787-11792)
11790
mean only increase in the number of graduates, it also means that the retained knowledge is how much useful for community. Examples from the real world Effective delivery of a classroom teaching along with its effective learning by the students makes teaching meaningful. Connect the content taught with the real world examples and it will make learning long lasting. For example in an economics classroom, while delivering the content on „law of demand‟, the theoretical and conceptual knowledge is that when price of good increases, its quantity demanded decreases. But if we connect this example with how our students behave as a consumer in the market, the same result was found. In this way the analysis of a concept makes it clearer and long lasting.
Explanation with Teaching Aids Explanation with graphs, models and figures makes the concept easy to understand. For example graphs and figures are very helpful while teaching the students of Economics. These are visual methods for presentation of data. Teaching economics with charts, diagrams and equation should be an integral part of the teaching of all subjects. The use of graphs presents data in a quick way, lift out the most important facts and can be easily remembered. The knowledge of graphs are also important for everyday life from newspapers to magazines. Active engagement of students In an active learning classroom, students must think, create and solve problems rather than passively listen to lecture. Teaching must be student centered, collaborative, comfortable, organized and according to the needs of learners. Active learning helps to maintain student concentration and deepens learning towards the higher-level skills like critical thinking. A teacher must keep asking questions during teaching for the active involvement of students. It also increases their motivation, interest and critical thinking skills. Through this a teacher can assess whether students are understanding the content or not. Class participation is an important aspect of students‟ learning. When student speak up in class, they learn to express their ideas in a way that others can understand. When they ask questions, they learn how to obtain information to enhance their understanding of the content. Field Surveys Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Reena Trivedi (Pg. 11787-11792)
11791
Educational field surveys not only expand students learning and experience but also increase students‟ knowledge and understanding of the real world in which they live. The practical application of learning enhances, students understanding of the subject taught. it links theoretical knowledge to practical knowledge. This improves students analytical skill and deeper social knowledge. Continuous and comprehensive Evaluation Evaluation is a way to improve students‟ learning and teachers teaching. it determines whether the learning objectives have fulfilled or not, whether students understand course material or not. Student evaluation enables a teacher to measure the effectiveness of teaching by linking students performance to learning objectives. It provides feedback to both teachers and students. There are generally two forms of students‟ assessment. The first, summative evaluation, which is implemented at the end of the course of study and second, formative evaluation, involves the evaluation of student learning during the course of learning. Both of the above methods can be utilized by a teacher which must be followed by feedback but formative evaluation is more significant. Feedback For effective teaching and learning, feedback is very crucial. it has a significant effect on students‟ learning and is a powerful moderator that enhances their achievements. Feedback is valuable when it is received, understood and acted on. How students analyze, discuss and act on feedback is equally important as feedback itself. Through feedback, teachers can provide the students with suggestions for development, learning strategies and correction for errors. It is a tool for fostering student achievement. The objective of teachers‟ feedback is to help students identify their performance in the class. It can be positive or negative but helps students to improve the performance. Teacher should be cautious about using negative feedback. It should not discourage the students. Effective teaching strategies are very powerful instrument to improve students‟ performance in an institution. Conclusion Institutions of higher education are struggling to provide high quality education to the students. Effective teaching focuses on students learning and understanding. Teaching and learning becomes effective when it increases the interest of students, clarity of the concept,
Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Reena Trivedi (Pg. 11787-11792)
11792
understanding level, learning capacity, achievement level and a positive change in attitude towards life. Effective teaching takes time and effort. It requires planning, patience and hard work. Effective delivered knowledge by a teacher becomes meaningful when it effectively reaches the students mind. Learning is now an integral part of teaching process. Instead of only lecturing to students, teacher now engage students in many different active learning activities for effective teaching. It promotes teaching skills, master new knowledge, develop new proficiency, which helps to improve students‟ learning and human quality index of a country. References Nicol, D. (2010), “From monologue to dialogue : improving written feedback processes in mass higher education”, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 35(5), 501-517. John V. Antonetti and James R. Garver (2015), “Seventeen thousand classroom visits can‟t be wrong : Strategies that engage students, promote active learning, and boost achievement.” Giselle O. Martin-kniep (2000), “Become a better teacher : Eight innovations that work.” G. Lokanadha Reddy & R. Vijaya Anuradha (2015), “Teacher education : Certain reflections”. Vimala Ramchandran, Sangeeta Goyal and Prerna Goel Chatterjee, “Getting the right teachers into right schools”, A world bank study. Sahil Sharma and Purnendu Sharma (2015), “Indian Higher education system : Challenges and Suggestions.”, Electronic Journal for Inclusive education, Vol. 3, No. 4. Agarwal P. (2006), „Higher Education in India : The Need for Change.” ICRIER Working paper, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations : No. 180. Saral Kaul (2006), “Higher Education in India : Seizing the Opportunity”. Working paper No. 179.
Copyright © 2017, Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies