Strategies of Effective Teaching

Effective Classroom Teaching Strategies

The following are some effective classroom teaching strategies

Autonomous learning – guiding students to be responsible for their learning and revision

At the beginning, students are likely to copy everything down on their notebooks, making their effort not as effective as it could be. Teachers should teach them how to be selective and choose the most important information to write down. Every time when students start to do revision, teachers should encourage them to take notes and make changes to the first edition of the notes. However, the breath and depth of information on the notes is highly determined by one’s interest and competence. If the teachers would like to promote peer learning, they may select several outstanding work to which students can make reference. Although making notes is essential to one’s ultimate success, teachers should not set any standards or requirements for notes as the major purposes of note-taking are to enable students to experience the process of learning and promote assessment for learning. Ironically, note-taking is no longer a regular practice in modern education. In hopes of strengthening students’ skills in thinking and learning, teachers should encourage students to jot notes and take charge of their learning. 

Teachers should be consistent in their teaching. Say for instance storytelling. Teachers should briefly talk about the contents of the stories prior to the pre-reading quizzes, which only test students on their knowledge of the texts. The results can help teachers better understand the overall performances of the students and map out a plan to help students learn better. In addition to some teaching materials merely requiring students to report factual information, teachers may prepare some supplementary questions for students to think freely and develop the love of learning. Discussion is particularly useful to guide students to think actively and stand for what they think is right.

The success of autonomous learning lies in the suitability of the supplementary teaching materials. Not only do the materials have to be comprehensible to students, they also have to be challenging enough to motivate students to think and participate. Teachers should make the additional tasks lively and interesting. In Chinese language teaching, there are texts about life education to emotionally connect students and arouse their interest in learning.

Autonomous learning is actualized when teachers empower students to set the submission dates for their assignments. Such ksind of empowerment allows students to make a fair negotiation with their teachers. Meanwhile, teachers will be clearer about the schedules of the students. When everyone has a well-structured plan, teaching and planning will be more efficient.

Problem-solving learning – building students’ problem-solving skills

“Every year I have different problem-solving activities to train students to think critically and develop their problem-solving skills. All the activities are to enable students to work with others, discuss, and report different information. More importantly, students will be able to bring different opinions to the table and reach consensus. Students will also have to do role play, acting as teachers and engineers to not only look into the cases, but also come up with solutions for the problems. For instance, students can express their impression of a filthy and undeveloped community through a drawing of a severely polluted river that separates the poor and the rich. This creative task has successfully created a loving learning environment where students can create what they think and believe. In a dramatic skit of Hua Mulan, students are expected to design a scene with props and backdrops designed and made by students. Such process can engage students in both learning and questioning. 

Differentiated Instruction – catering for learners’ diversity

Based on the previous learning experience, the teacher will first design a worksheet which is easy enough for all students to complete. A relatively easier worksheet will come after, serving as a supplementary note to scaffold some less capable students to do revision at home with parental support. Likewise, the worksheets can serve as references for parents to keep abreast of their children’s learning progresses. In consideration of learners’ diversity, teachers will prepare different sets of handouts for students of different levels to complete. For some capable ones, teachers will provide them with exercises featuring challenging questions. Since there are differences in worksheets, teachers shall differentiate them carefully before the delivery. As usual, the teacher will keep them in one pile and remind students to complete the individualized worksheets which are labelled as ‘secret tips’ for each of them. 

Learning for Building students’ confidence

Drama serves as a platform for shy and quiet students to express themselves through movement and performances. The settings in a drama class challenge the barriers in any traditional classrooms, enabling students to sit on the floor and learn collaboratively through contributing their own talent to the groups. Since dramatic performances do not have standard answers as reference, students can enjoy sharing their thoughts and actualizing their ideas in the dramatic skits. Many students have proven to build up confidence in drama classes and their confidence is also a driving force pushing them to challenge themselves to reach for their limit. Once they are used to the learning mode of drama classes, they will be used to sharing a lot with their peers and taking charge of their own learning. 

There was once a bashful girl who lacked courage to speak in public. She was willing to share in drama classes because she was sure that making mistakes was never a problem in the class. Sometimes, teachers would display some students’ work to talk about some common errors found in the class. Because of their concern of face, many students would reject the idea and asked the teachers not to show their assignments but those of others. However, this shall not be the correct attitude upheld by students. The teachers should encourage students to be respectful for one another and to be opened to the mistakes. Teachers may reinforce the respectful spirit by inviting students to solve problems raised by their peers. Students needed so much encouragement to demonstrate their bravery in the class. With sufficient encouragement and support, students could speak up without fear. It is clear to us that the lack of confidence in students is never a sign saying that they are not good enough, but a sign indicating that they lack faith in themselves. It is thus that teachers should give students unconditional support so as to keep their heads up and stay positive about the future. All marathon winners need many times of failing before becoming the real champions. Helping students succeed is the onus of teachers. Even if they fail, help them reflect and come back again as stronger individuals. It is sure that they all want to be better than their past.

Diversified teaching

Good teaching is a well-thought-out plan with clear learning objectives and foci. The teaching strategies adopted by the teachers should be timely, meaning that teachers have to be sensitive to students’ readiness for learning and their emotion. When altering the teaching strategies, teachers have to keep an eye on students’ responses and their energy level. If necessary, teachers might need to re-teach some prior knowledge so as to ensure students’ memories are fresh. For some mundane tasks, teachers might have to use some appealing gimmicks to attract students’ attention. For example, teachers might use love letter as the selling point of a writing lesson on letter structure. Some demotivated students might then be attentive to listen and learn. With the advent of technology, teachers can consider using social networking sites like Facebook to spread messages to students. If students are able to make good use of technology, we can learn together by sharing knowledge. Another fun way to make students awake in a double lesson is to share some personal stories with students. Students love listening to anything personal and interpret them with their imagination.

The toolboxes that assist teachers should be resourceful enough to support any kinds of teaching. Oftentimes, teachers rely heavily on textbooks, forgetting the choice of using professional knowledge to make a change. When stepping into a classroom, teachers should always keep in mind of what they want their students to take away from their lessons but not the steps for teaching. They should be flexible and be ready for any changes.

To make teaching closed and open-ended questions interesting, teachers can introduce an animal game to students for practicing the interrogative sentence structures. In this game, students will be asked to draw animal masks which will be distributed among the students to identify the animals presented on the masks. Students will have to ask both closed-ended and open-ended questions to find out the answers. The student with the most masks will be the winner of the game. To make it more challenging, teachers can increase the difficulty of the game by introducing more rules, shortening the game time, or restricting the number of questions in each turn. Not only will the students find it challenging yet exciting, they will also acquire the interrogative sentence structure subconsciously. The game can also engage both active and quiet students, promoting equal participation in classroom. On top of learning English, students can learn to cooperate and work with others. Most importantly, however, students will repeat questions like ‘can you fly?’ and  ‘what do you eat?’ to consolidate their learning of the target language skills. If there happens to be some mistakes, they can also refine their language and internalize through practices. In short, this game enables students to develop better language skills and better interpersonal skills.

Mutual growth in learning and teaching

If teachers can physically and spiritually be with students, students are very likely to be willing to learn from their teachers. In the effective condition of teaching and learning, there should be mutual growth in the two parties. In other words, not only do students learn from their teachers, but they also give feedback to teachers to enhance the teaching. Such reciprocal relationship enables teachers to consider students’ abilities and interest when it comes to designing lessons. Teachers should also be prepared that students learn differently. However, if a student does not enjoy learning, we can assume that he or she might not have learned a lot from our teaching. 

Be flexible and encourage students to learn through asking questions

Teachers should accept the fact that students coming to school do not know everything. This mentality will help generate empathy and respect from both teachers and students. Students should constantly check their learning and ask questions should they have any difficulties. However, some less capable students need more support from their teachers to speak up and let their voices be heard. Teachers should show more empathy to dyslexic students by allowing them to write beyond the lines and grids in their homework. Such arrangement helps students accept who they are and their weaknesses.

Stimulating learning among students

Individualized teaching

Most of the time, learning takes places between the interactions with others. Having students of similar types in a group will make it difficult to create dynamics when everyone may have similar thoughts and ideas, leading to a dull and lifeless lesson. Without regard to students’ academic performances and their learning abilities, teachers should be open-minded to accept individual differences. As long as teachers are willing to preserve the diversity, students will also value the uniqueness and become willing to share their ideas. If teachers limit their visions to the learning ability of students, less capable students will inevitably be excluded in such comparison. However, teachers should make sure different voices are heard so that dynamics can be created. Sometimes, teachers are more inclined to listen to responses from ‘clever’ students as their answers tend to be accurate. Plus, they are able to predict the questions from teachers. Their answers tend to be unsurprisingly correct. For students who are out of the category of ‘clever’, they are actually the valuable assets generating creative ideas that stimulate learning.

When the whole society is moving towards inclusive education, we must keep an eye on helping Special Educational Needs (SEN) students identify themselves through their positive learning experience. In this regards, schools should organize different activities such as barbeque and magic shows to help students discover their interests, personal goals, and even the meaning of life. Student Guidance and Discipline team may also organize some courses for students to learn some special skills like magic skills and balloon twisting skills to make themselves unique. After a while, students can be invited to demonstrate their skills in special events like Open Days where guests and parents are invited. The applauses and praises earned from the audience are profound for SEN students to build their positive self-esteem.

Imposing discipline in teaching

Disciplinary problems have long been the major concern for teachers in classroom management. While we are working so hard to find the perfect solution to ‘manage’ a class, why don’t we take a step back and consider some new options? If we are devoted to teaching students well, why don’t we consider designing an interesting lesson which not only attracts students, but also physically involves them in the lesson. So long as they are truly interested, no matter what their learning abilities are, they will learn without creating many disciplinary problems. Oftentimes, teachers are restricted by the labels of SEN, dealing with the students by segregating them, which is detrimental to both students’ self-esteem and their relationships with, teaches. Therefore, teachers are advised not to implement too many rules but only explain the core ones clearly to students, in particular the young ones. There may be times students have forgotten about the rules. Teachers ought to remind them from time to time. Storytelling is another useful way to help students expand their attention span and strengthen their team spirit.

Treat everyone the same

Teachers should respect individual differences and leave the labels of Special Educational Needs (SEN) behind so that students with different gifted talent can unleash their potential in their learning. There are two meanings embedded in the word ‘difference’– ‘deviation’ and ‘diversity’. ‘Deviation’ refers to the gap between the standard and current stage whereas ‘diversity’ means the differences in a particular domain. The job of teachers is to help students bridge the gap and move on to the next stage with sufficient scaffolding. Having said so, students are by no means to strive for perfect at the expense of maintaining their personal uniqueness. They must respect their own learning styles, abilities, emotional development, and interests. When it comes to group learning, teachers should facilitate students to socialize while safeguarding their distinctiveness.