New trends and techniques in teaching
We have to discuss new trends and techniques in teaching since there are numerous social, technological, and behavioral changes. I believe that one of the first changes we have to make is to change the standard method of teaching known as ‘lecturing’.
Teachers are so used to this method of teaching that they start talking immediately after entering a classroom and stop only when the time allotted ends. We have to change this method. We have to make teaching very interactive. Technology has reduced our attention span to a great extent. There is a change in behavior of parents due to excessive use of technology like mobile phones. Students observe these changes happening at home. Many students themselves have become excessive users of technology.
Technology infrastructure challenges can be solved if there is a will to make positive change. Many schools in villages also employ technology effectively. So technology adoption has not only remained an urban phenomenon, but it has become a national phenomenon in India. We will have to adapt to these changes based on our needs and not blindly adopt any technology because somebody else is using it.
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Ancient Indian philosophy for education was based on logic, fact, argument, and evidence. Somehow, we started to give importance to reproducing the answers as it is instead of students answering in their own words. When Indian students are exposed to developed countries where the education philosophy is to apply their minds, some Indian students get into trouble because they are used to rote learning.
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We also have to explore new ways of teaching. Recently, I saw a newspaper sharing an entrepreneurial story in a cartoon strip format. I found this very interesting since students get interested in knowing more immediately.
As a teacher, another aspect to remember for your own upgradation is to focus on learning rather than only certifications and degrees. Learning is lifelong. Once my mother had drawn a Rangoli (an Indian art form of drawing with sand-like material), and she asked me what was special about it. I couldn’t recognize what was special, so I asked her what’s the secret? She told me that the Rangoli is drawn with pen instead of by hand. You have to remove the refill from a ballpoint pen, fill Rangoli powder in it, and draw the Rangoli with the pen. She told me that she learned this technique by watching a video on YouTube! My mother has studied till tenth standard, though she is a continuous learner thanks to use of technology. Similarly, we will have to keep on learning and develop this habit of learning in students.
An interesting initiative I came across is called Skype in the Classroom, where schools across the world are connected to each other and different schools show their campuses and other interesting information to the network through a Skype video call.
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Although there are numerous new trends and techniques in teaching available, we will have to try relevant ones and adapt and explore. We will discuss the most discussed trend AI, some other time.
A teacher reading this will say, let me get back to my routine. I have to check attendance, prepare for next lecture and so on. If the school is using School Management Softare/ERP, teacher knows that the daily activity of attendance monitoring is consolidated with features like individual attendance, month-wise attendance, present student count with details per class, missing attendance alerts for supervision purposes and so on.
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Let me know your thoughts.
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Regards, Dr. Sachin Mohan Bhide, Consultant, RITeSchool www.riteschool.com
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