Education, like almost
every other area of our society has evolved by leaps and bounds in recent
years. Traditional teaching techniques, mainly based on the figure of the
teacher explaining and students taking notes can still be useful in some cases;
however, education today revolves more around to encourage students to arouse
their curiosity and willingness to learn.
Following this trend
have emerged, therefore, new teaching techniques. Many of these teaching
techniques are not new. However, the use of new technologies at our disposal today
can give a new approach to extending our classrooms.
1.Flipped Classroom
(flipped classroom): This technique basically involves teaching students to
study and prepare the lesson before class. Thus, the class in question becomes
much more dynamic and an environment in which further study on the subject.
Students come home with similar basics, so that the class can be devoted to
solve doubts and go beyond the issues for which students feel more curious.
The concept of
"flipped classroom" combines well with Goconqr tools. With Goconqr it
easy to share resources with a group, in this case the class, allowing students
to study these resources from home and prepare for the next class.
2.Design Thinking (case
method): This technique is based on using real cases and resolve them in a
group through analysis, brainstorming, innovation and creative ideas. Although
the "design thinking" is a structured method in practice is quite
messy as real problems for which in most cases there is insufficient
information and may even be that the conclusion is that there is no solution
treated possible.
However, the case method
prepares students for the real world and arouses your curiosity, analytical
skills and creativity. This technique is often used in popular MBA or Masters
to analyze real cases experienced by companies in the past.
3.Self-learning:
Curiosity is the main driver of learning. As a basic principle of learning, it
makes little sense to force students to memorize a text to forget it two days
after the test. The key is to let students focus on the area that interests
them to actively explore and learn about it.
A perfect example of
teaching techniques based on self-learning is related by Sonata Metra at the conference
TED (Spanish subtitles). In a series of experiments in New Delhi, South Africa
and Italy, the researcher Sonata Metra education provided children
self-supervised access to the web. The results obtained could revolutionize how
we think about teaching. The children, who until then did not even know what
the Internet was, were able to self-training in multiple subjects with
unexpected ease.
A closer way to explore
self-learning technique may be making use of Mind Mapping. With them, the
teacher can start a thinking process by typing a word in the central node of a
map or propose a theme and letting students develop their own ideas from it.
For example, if the theme is the human body, some can create mind maps on
systems and devices, others on bones and other diseases that affect the human
body. Later the students would be evaluated according to the mental maps that
have been created and could work together to improve them.
4. Games: Learning
through the use of games is a method that has already been explored by some
teachers, especially in primary and preschool education. By using games, the
student learns virtually no notice. Therefore, learning to play is a learning
technique that can be very effective at any age, but also helpful to keep the
student motivated.
The teacher should
design projects that are appropriate for their students, considering their age
and knowledge, while making them attractive enough to provide extra motivation.
One idea might be to encourage students to create tests with questions about a
certain topic and encourage them to challenge their peers to do them to see who
gets a higher score. In this way, students will enjoy the competition with
their peers to achieve the highest score.
5. Social Media: A
variant of the previous point are teaching techniques based on social networks.
In this way, the students, who today spend the day on social networks, have an
extra motivation to learn. The ways you can take this method of learning are
varied, as there are hundreds of social networks and possibilities. A good
example is the initiative taken by the Brazilian Academy of languages
"Red Balloon", who encouraged his students to review the tweets of
their favorite artists and to correct grammatical errors they committed these
to enhance their learning of English.
6. Technical Exegetical
or Commented Reading: Based on the reading of texts related to the subject or
author treated. This technique aims that students grasp and understand what the
author wants to communicate and seek the implicit meaning in the text and their
circumstances. Each student can be based on the theme that interests you to
inquire about it. Again, new technologies give us a great advantage in using
this technique, since they allow us access to unlimited information.
