Getting you learners to engage in the class room

Unfortunately we, as teachers, practice a profession where learners are normally not very excited to be taught. If we want learners to experience a positive learning environment we have to be creative in teaching our content in such a way as to get our learners to actively engage with one another.

I recently read an article written by Abby Wills (2015) where she explained how she turned her noisy, restless and distractive class into an environment where learners cooperate, learn from one another and learn how to be careful in the things they do. She made them aware of the fact that they were very noisy and changed the whole experience of learners by applying a very simple concept. 

We, as student teachers- aspiring to become the teachers of the future, can learn a lot from this simple example. If there is one important thing that we can learn from this story is that we, as teachers, need to use our creativity to change and to enhance our classroom experience for our learners. We can do this by bringing in fun activities which the learners will love as they are actively involved in these activities.

If there in one thing I learned from our PGCE classes, it would be that learners want to feel included in a classroom and you can achieve this by letting them choose the rules of the classroom- let then decide what they want and don’t want you to be- just make sure that you do define the boundaries before you let them set up the classroom.

Learners also needs to feel included by having an open room for discussions. Foley (2014) recognises this as an important aspect for effective learning. He also states that a teacher should be available, approachable and accessible. He also made an important point about the resources that we use in the classroom and that these resources should enhance the learning process. He suggested that we can use resources such as multimedia, charts, people, learning objects, posters, charts and models and stated that we can use fun things such as a birthday calendar to make our classrooms a bit more exciting.

To sum it up- by being creative, we can use simple activities to keep learners’ attention and put them in charge of their own responsibilities. We just need to think outside the box!

A student teaching a teacher?

This is not entirely what the article on critical digital pedagogy, written by Sam Hamilton suggests, but it might be what educators think when we speak about teaching digital pedagogy in such a way that students teach themselves and use digital technologies in such a way as to be able to add on to what they are learning in class.

We live in a world where technology is all around us and where the teacher does not fulfill the same role as he/she did a few years ago. In the olden days the teacher was the one who knew everything and the student was the one who knew nothing. There was merely a transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student; whereas in today’s life we get students who question our teachers and question the topics covered in their subjects. It is important to note that students are not trying to be disrespectful by questioning everything; they are just trying to enhance their learning and are doing so by reading up on the subject on the internet. 

I remember one of my lecturers told us that we must exploit the knowledge of our learners when we teach them. It is true that a teacher can’t know everything in the world and sometimes it is necessary to turn to our learners for answers as they are one of our most valuable resources, together with textbooks and the internet. In some cases learners are faster in accessing the internet then you would ever be.

Also, in most cases, it is better for the learners to discover something on their own and to be faced with problems, since this is how long-term learning takes place. In today’s life, learners should focus their attention on their own education as they have the power, together with the online world, to develop and shape their own learning.

A final point to state is that we should not exclude learners when we decide on which digital technology to use in the classroom as we shut off the most important element in our classroom- the learners! We should let them choose what works best for them and if we don’t limit them, we might see new technologies developing as they are shaping their learning is such a way as to get the very best learning experience out of their time in class.