Ideas for Teachers Set B1

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM by Arul Princy J

What is constructivism? Constructivism is the basic knowledge that a learner construct by themselves through one’s own experiences. In Social Constructivism, the objects that we see or know in this world are mere constructs until people agree to give them a social meaning. Social Constructivism was developed by Vygotsky.

 Example: Nations are just groups of people who share language and culture.

                      Money is just a piece of metal or paper until people agree to give it a value.

For one instance, take our personal self, our identity is created by interactions we have with other people and the reactions to the expectations of the society.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

 A child has the capability to learn by itself.    But there comes a stage where it needs some addition of ideas, in other words a lending hand to enhance the cognitive development. Vygotsky calls this zone, where knowledge is developed with the help of others called as Zone of proximal development.

Social Interaction enhances Cognitive Development:

         Initially the construction of knowledge is limited to the individual skill range which then reaches the zone of proximal development that later enhances the potential skill range as a result of social interaction. In the zone of proximal development, the knowledge of the child is built from what is known to what is unknown through the guidance of a knowledgeable person e.g., teacher, peers.

Formative Assessment by Harshitha Jain

Formative assessment is a tool to continuously evaluate students’ learning and their performance. Formative assessment provides feedback which not only helps teachers to improve their teaching but helps students to improve their academic performance.

Formative Assessments (FAs) become too monotonous and do not test the multiple intelligence of students. Students end up doing their Formative Assessments with same old series of questionnaire or boring write ups. Here are 4 ways to make FAs interesting and fun to check students’ understanding of the concept.

1. Quizzes: Quizzes can be a great way of assessing students’ learning, of, how much they know of that particular class. Teachers can use various online mediums like Kahoot, quizzes, Socrative, Quizlet etc. through these mediums teacher has chance to determine how students are doing individually.

2. Dipsticks: This is quick and easy way to check students’ learning and they are referred to dipsticks, when doing a dipstick activity you can students to write a letter to best friend on what they learnt in class, Think pair share, draw a sketch to represent a new knowledge that they gained in the hour.

3. Interview assessment: In this method teacher can dig a little deeper to know the students’ understanding of content, also levelling up on the bloom’s taxonomy while involving students in class discussions, group discussions, debate, 2 min extempore etc.

4. Art as assessment: bring in visual art, drawing, painting, theatre, story boards, dance and music students can choose any one of these which they are comfortable with and represent their learning through these mediums.

I hope these tips helped you and always remember to try doing something different. A happy teacher makes a happy child. 

GAME BASED LEARING FOR SCHOOLS 

- Amrtha Srinivasan

Visualise a classroom with 40 students. You are the teacher and all you do is walk into the class on a daily basis and bore the students to death! You may think that is not completely true, as you are using Powerpoint slides, giving the class notes, reading out their lessons to them. Teachers, since time immemorial have got accustomed to practices like throwing a piece of chalk at the student who seems to have dozed off amidst their never ending, monotonous lecture which turned out to be a lullaby!

Game-Based Learning (GBL) is an interesting classroom strategy to have the entire class participate in the learning process. This is a method used in countries like the United States. India is a toddler in this regard and Gurgaon happens to be the hub for GBL as of today. Classrooms with the basic facilities like a projector, device and an internet connection or even through their computer labs can make this a reality. Free games that are present on the internet can be adopted and customised to meet the instructional needs. Colours and a little Animation can go a long way in getting children love going to school!

Games are played everywhere outside schools – Why not have them in learning spaces as well?

Learning Styles by Saif Khan

Every Individual is unique and so is the learning styles but we generally tend to

evaluate or compare an individual based on their marks and scores rather than focusing

on their unique style of learning and comprehension based on their uniqueness,

interests and capabilities.

There are basically three types of learning styles which I feel has to be taken into

consideration in a classroom setup. They are as follow:

Auditory learning : It is a learning style in which a student learns through listening. Here,

communication plays a very crucial role with regard to the auditory learners.

Visual learning : It is also called the spatial learning or visual-spatial learning style. It is a

way of learning in which information is directly related with the pictorial representation

or images.

Kinesthetic learning: (Tactile learning) is a kind of learning style in which physical

activities, role plays or demonstration plays an important role in the learning process.

Differentiated Instruction by Bhawana

There are students with diverse learning styles in a classroom. Some of the students may learn

better by reading or writing. Others may prefer to watch a video, listen to a recording, or dig into

activities that provide hands-on experience. Differentiated teaching or instruction is a way to

teach that matches the variety of learning style present in the classroom. All students have the

same objective in terms of learning. But the approach to teaching varies based on how students

prefer to learn. A teacher uses a range of approaches to teach, instead of using a one-size-fits-all

approach. Differentiated teaching aims to reach each student at their own level and enable

students to learn in the way that works best for them. Differentiated instruction is for everyone,

it is not only for the outliers at the top and bottom of the class. The differentiation can help

all those students who are in the middle, students who succeed in some areas but fail in others,

and students who seem uninterested in education.

Differentiated instruction has 3 aspects. That is Differentiated content, differentiated process,

differentiated product. Some examples of differentiated learning experiences around these three

aspects of differentiation are given here:

1. Differentiated content- At their individual levels of reading, students in a class read the

same article. On the basis of their own interests, students choose various science projects.

2. Differentiated process- Either by watching a video series, reading articles, participating in

a group discussion, or working on a research project , students choose how to explore a

concept.

3. Differentiated product- By writing a report, giving a presentation to the class, or building

a demonstration of the concepts in action, a teacher gives students an opportunity to show

what they have learned in a unit.

Differentiation encourages teachers to teach and offer a variety of projects in a variety of ways,

so that students have the opportunity to engage in different formats with the material and explore

different ways of learning.

Advantage of using differentiated instruction is that Students who are below grade level are less

likely to fall further behind, students who are above grade level are not bored with material that

does not challenge them, and students in the middle don’t feel invisible. This happen

because each student engages with the material at their own level in a way that makes sense to

them. Moreover, each student can take part in class discussions and events. No students are left

out of group activities simply because the task of reading exceeded their level. A healthier

classroom culture is encouraged by differentiated instruction. Differentiation teaches students

that one way of learning is not just right, everyone is different, and everybody has different

strengths! Students gain respect for the strengths and interests of their peers instead of labelling

each other as good or bad in school.