Teaching is a profession blended with nobility and the willingness to develop learning capabilities. It serves as a significant function in shaping society, inspiring moral values, and ethics in individuals. The job of a teacher, though, is not an easy one. Meeting the learning needs of each individual in a class can be a daunting task.
The advancement in technology and cultural and socio-dynamic changes has led to addressing unique students and varying intelligence. The internet has provided academicians and learners various resources to hone their skills and expand their capabilities. Therefore, teachers of different disciplines can utilize all the available means to transfer the latest knowledge. However, they must ensure that their teaching style caters to every student’s needs and capabilities.
Here are six teaching styles that can transform a class’s atmosphere and highly impact the learning process.
- Teacher Dominant Teaching Method:
This traditional teaching method involves a presentation or lecture given by the teacher. In this method, the teacher is the dominant figure in the classroom, providing analysis, information, and critical factors about a subject matter. The interaction between the teacher and students is minimal to sometimes nonexistent.
The sole authority resides with the teacher. The student notes down the essential points of a lecture or absorbs them. Now you might be wondering why such a teaching style is encouraged in today’s learning environment. Several complex subjects are challenging to grasp, and for such subjects, this method is highly successful. This teaching practice is most suitable for older and mature students because they need slightly less encouragement to focus.
Teachers who are skilled at dominant teaching styles have immense experience capturing students’ attention and keeping them engaged. But becoming such a teacher requires years of practice. So, if you ask how long does it take to become a teacher who excels in imparting complex knowledge using an authoritative style. The answer would be, there isn’t a set duration, but it requires extensive training and development to attain this status.
- Student-Centered Teaching Style:
Probably the most interactive teaching style is the student-centered learning strategy. While still being an authoritative body, the teacher equally shares the teaching and presenting part with the students. The students are motivated to share their insightful knowledge or opinion on topics to form discussion-based learning. Learners are often divided into groups to discuss and then share their formulated points.
It develops a less stressful and more comfortable setting for facilitating the students with information and knowledge. Research has proven that students gain self-confidence, form dedication, and communication skills through peer teaching techniques. An individual’s intrapersonal abilities and social skills also enhance through adherence towards positive reliance in the class.
- Incorporation of Visual Aids in Teaching:
Visual aids and resources can bring about an innovative factor in the teaching process. This teaching style can immensely help in achieving the desired outcome from the students. They become actively involved in a class that has various materials to explain an idea. For instance, globes are helpful to explain the geographical locations of different countries. University students can utilize graphical representation, videos, and infographics. It can make an otherwise dull lecture into an interesting one.
The use of practical experiments makes the students understand the importance of classroom learning in the real world. Also, students tend to remember theories and concepts taught using visual tools for a more extended period. Therefore, many institutes encourage their teachers to utilize visual aids like maps, charts, photos, videos, and practical apparatuses in their teaching.
- Learning Through Inquiry and Inspection:
In this teaching method, the teacher plays a supporter’s role rather than an authoritative figure. The students learn using the means of inquiry, research, and gathering information about a topic. They get numerous resources like internet access, books, and library and research papers to help them. Sometimes the teacher provides case studies. Other times students formulate questions themselves to search for concepts and information.
The teachers throughout the process work as a facilitator, putting up high-end questions and suggestions. They get a more profound knowledge and understanding of academic topics.
After the research process, the students then share their findings and unique ideas with the whole class, creating an ongoing learning system. Assigning different topics to multiple groups and sharing each group’s work is an ideal time-efficient and collaborative learning model.
- Using Technology as a Teaching Tool:
Technology has majorly taken over our lives. The teaching environment has not remained untouched by technological progressions. Now, students can access laptops, tablets, or any other digital portal to assist in their learning. Games, puzzles, challenging tasks, or simply searching information on a gadget can increase students’ engagement and involvement in the lessons. They concentrate more, and the rate and range of inculcation of concepts increases.
Teachers are excessively using technology in their lessons to produce an enlightening and exciting class environment. Instead of verbal instructions and lectures, they show students videos on the subject. The diagrams, animated designs, images, and graphics, plus the engaging audio or music, imparts the concept broadly than any other traditional teaching method.
Conclusion:
The education field is rapidly progressing with new learning modes and research into emerging intelligence. Therefore, teaching styles must advance and align with changing classroom dynamics and requirements. The above teaching styles are a handful from the various available out there. However, before utilizing any of these styles, ensure that they are relevant to the students and the particular subjects.
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